‘It just felt normal’: Lachie has been a carer since he was five, and he is not alone

At just five years of age, Lachie Draper-Shaw began caring for his mother and younger brother, missing out on his first year of school. 

The now-12-year-old, who lives in Adelaide, has spent most of his life caring for his mum Shannon and younger brother Riley.

Riley was born with the rare genetic condition, Mosaicism, which led to him spending a significant time in hospital.

Then at just four, Lachie would be required to help care for his brother.

“He would spend most of his time in hospital, so I would really have to help mum get him packed up and get ready to go into the hospital,” Lachie said.

“He had a backpack and oxygen and I would carry that out to the ambulance … and then watch him leave.”

Not long after Riley was born, his mum Shannon became ill, putting more responsibility onto Lachie.

“I had to start doing the dishes, doing the bed, making lunches, making dinner because mum wasn’t able to do it,” he said.

“It just felt normal because I’d already been used to doing it for my brother, so really I thought it was just something I had to do just to make sure the family’s OK.”

Shannon Shaw’s illness meant her stomach stopped working and she has been fed total parenteral nutrition for the past two years.

“I would have lots of collapsing episodes due to low sugars, so Lachie would have to be on call for the ambulance,” she said.

“He would have to help me get around the house, help me connect to my machines.

“His world again changed, but he just thought it was normal … so a lot of pressure was put on him in that time.

“There was a lot of responsibility put on him, so you do get a bit of the ‘mum guilt’.”

‘Huge financial relief’

The role of looking after a sibling or parent often means young carers miss out on education or social activities — a fact that Lachie understands all too well.

“I missed out on my first year of reception, so I missed out on the spelling year, and then I wasn’t able to go to most parties because mum was sick, so she couldn’t really drop me off,” he said.

“I guess I was a very angry child when I was younger because I couldn’t really tell anyone I knew I was having to deal with lots of stuff.”

The federal government has provided further funding for grants to carers aged between 12 and 25.

It will see an extra $9.75 million go towards the Young Carers Bursary Program over the next three years.

The number of grants being offered has also increased from 1,000 to 1,600, as has the amount, with successful applicants receiving up to $3,768.

Lachie Draper-Shaw is one of the recipients, and his mum said the support was a “huge financial relief”.

“I started to realise he needs an outlet, so the funding actually helps us getting Lachie to the footy,” Ms Shaw said.

“Buying Lachie uniforms and getting him a laptop that he needed for school, all of those sort of things — if we didn’t have the funding, I, for a single mum, just wouldn’t be able to afford it at all.”

CEO of Carers SA David Militz said providing young carers with funding was crucial for their education.

“Their caring role often means they struggle to do homework, they struggle to work outside of their caring role and school simply because of the time it takes to care for their family member or friend,” he said.

“The ability to enable them to have some money to purchase something that will help them through the education is vital.”

Young carers often drop out of school or are unable to complete their education and are then forced to care full-time for a parent or sibling.

“That means they’re not going into the workforce, it also means they’re going straight into carer payment or carer allowance which is very difficult to fight their way back into the workforce,” Mr Militz said.

“Those things young carers have to do take away from their ability to lead a normal life.”