Being a Carer isn’t just caring about someone – although that’s part of it – it’s about all the things that go into looking after another person, putting them first, making difficult decisions, listening to your intuition, fighting for their corner and providing love and support. As a carer, you are an inspiration and you deserve to be celebrated.

And on Monday 12 June, we celebrated together. Over 400 of you joined us to kick-off Carers Week 2017 at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, at our Celebrating Carers event.

With four floors of events, activities and information and support stands for carers spread across the Symphony Hall Foyers, it was difficult to pack everything in. Some of the most popular activities included Bhangra dancing, wellbeing massages, tai chi and chair yoga taster sessions. One of our favourite things about the day was watching people throw themselves into new experiences, whether it was a hula-hooping competition, shimmying on the dance floor to the bhangra beats or joining in with the fantastic choirs – you really made the most of your time.

Birmingham Carers Hub partners show-cased their services and provided valuable information on the support available to local carers. One of our busiest stalls saw dozen of carers receive free Carer Health MOTs. Ageing Better in Birmingham spoke to lots of people about their Ageing Better fund where carers can apply for up to £2,000 towards setting up a new carers group. Another popular stall was the Carers Emergency Response (CERS) service, which can provide up to 48 hours home care in the case of an emergency. To find out more about these services and all our partners, go to the Local Services section of our website.

We are very grateful to everyone who attended and made the event such a success, including Carers and Birmingham Carers Hub partners. A special thank you goes to THSH and their sponsors Moore Stephens LLP for their generosity in supporting this event once again.