Remember us in your will

 Indeed, there came a day when the physical strain became too much, and David collapsed at home. Emergency services had to be called. He had tried other help, like social services and private agencies along the way. But too often it fell well short of the care he felt Elizabeth deserved. In fact, on two occasions he felt he had no choice but to ask the carer to leave. After that, he found it hard to trust anyone alone with her, and consequently found it very hard to leave their house at all.

However, that changed when Crossroads Care Surrey began supporting them. For a few hours each week, one of our carer support workers took over, so David could tend to his own needs for a while. Things like the food shop, the bank, a GP  and hospital appointments for his own medical conditions.  Small hours, but enough to let him recover, and benefit from his own breathing space.  What really mattered the most to him was the trust he had in the people who were now looking after Elizabeth. That, for once, she was in hands as careful as his own, which meant he could genuinely take a break. He called it a lifeline.

Around the time Elizabeth moved into a care home, David sat down to update his will. He wanted to look after his family and friends first. But he had also learned, more sharply than most people ever do, what those few hours of respite were worth to an unpaid carer. So, he left gifts to three charities. Crossroads Care Surrey was one of them.

James explained how much this had mattered to David. Their family home had gained a good deal in value over the years. It was value he couldn’t touch while he lived, but which could be put to good work, he felt, once he was gone. Whatever the house was worth, he was clear it should do the most good it possibly could.

And it has.

David’s gift meant that, when council funding fell away, Crossroads Care Surrey could reach 274 unpaid carers in much the same position David had once been in: worn down, wary of leaving the house, carrying it all alone – and give each of them two months of respite they would otherwise have gone without.

One of the beneficiaries wrote to us afterwards: “Crossroads has been my lifeline. Without your help, I wouldn’t be here right now. Thank you for giving me the chance to breathe.”

David made a considered choice: that the unpaid carer coming along behind him should have this lifeline too. One person who had been there, seeing to it that the way was a little less impossible for whoever came next.

When the time feels right for you, we hope you might consider remembering Crossroads Care Surrey in your will, too.