Maidstone Carers book club

A book club in Maidstone not only gives carers a break from their responsibilities, but also provides the soothing company of others who are in a similar situation.

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Video transcript

Evy Barry, Kent TV, reports.

Hilary Alabaster, Book Club Member: 'I do enjoy the book club very much indeed.'

Bridget Overton, Organiser, Maidstone Carers Book Group: 'We also try to avoid choosing anything that's too emotionally draining, because carers responsibilities do that to them anyway.'

Janet Cox, Book Club Member: 'We come from all over - our experiences.'

Lynda Allen, Book Club Member: 'We're really like a big family now.'

Hilary Alabaster: 'And in many cases we're able to help one another.'

Bill Jackson, Book Club Member: 'I just enjoy it.'

Janet Cox: 'It's a lovely, lovely group.'

These people are all members of a book club and they probably get more out of meetings than any other reading group in the county.

That's because they're all carers with the kind of responsibilities at home that most of us can't even begin to imagine. Something Bridget Overton, the volunteer organiser of the group is well aware of.

Bridget Overton: 'The weight of what they carry... I mean one of the carers who came into the group this morning just looked so, so low when she arrived and I heard her say to somebody else that she'd got to a stage where she just wasn't going to be able to cope any more; last night she'd reached an all time low. Within minutes her face, her mood lifted and you just know that she'll go home thinking "I can carry on, I can do this" so I think the value of the group is immeasurable.'

Bill Jackson is the only male member of the club and has found the female support the group offers invaluable.

Bill Jackson: 'Well it's important if you're caring for a wife or an elderly mother or something like that, as a man you're not au fait on everything you should be doing and you can pick up points from these people and over the years you learn quite a lot; what caring is all about, making your life a bit easier, that's what it's all about.'

For most of the group, this is the only time they get away from caring for others.

Lynda Allen: 'In 1974 I gave birth to my son and at 10 months he started to have epileptic fits and at the same time he actually wasn't diagnosed then but he actually had autism. But it's not a problem, it's more a way of life to be honest, so in lots of ways it's a privilege to look after him sometimes, but it doesn't mean you don't get tired sometimes. It's just lovely to get away just to be somewhere else and to be actually and I do look upon it as a Shangri La.'

Janet cares for her husband and very much enjoys the companionship of other people who are in the same boat.

Janet Cox: 'We talk about the current book that we're going to review and then when we've done that we chatter sort of normally about things that have arisen in the book and all sorts of things come out, you know, what you feel and what your previous life has been like, you know, what you did as a career and then okay you become carers and you're not able to do those things any more.'

The book group is now two years old and Bridget's relaxed approach to it has been the key to its success.

Bridget Overton: 'Our book club I think is quite different from others and I have experience of both. We are a lot more tolerant of people like this week several people didn't read the book either because they hated it or because they'd had a bad month and it wasn't something they were able to get around to so we're very tolerant of that sort of thing. We're not nearly so pretentious as many book groups because we have got to know each other really well, we are friends, we're very comfortable with each other. So I think perhaps what we bring to the book club is a much more personal view of each book rather perhaps than high flown literary opinion. Mind you, we're quite good at expressing those as well!'