171: The 'D' Word with Pete Hill and guest Ceri Higgins171: The 'D' Word with Pete Hill and guest Ceri Higgins
UK Health Radio Podcast
Pete Hill talks with unpaid carer and advocate Ceri Higgins about caring for her parents with dementia, the toll it took, and her work pushing for carers’ rights in Wales. The conversation looks at family impact, lack of support, and why unpaid carers should be central to health and social care decisions.
35:57•5 Jun 2026
Caring, Cost and Courage: Ceri Higgins on Dementia and Unpaid Carers
Episode Overview
- Unpaid carers often take years to recognise themselves as carers, even while providing intensive, round-the-clock support.
- The emotional, psychological and financial costs of caring can be severe, especially when work is sacrificed and benefits are hard to access.
- Families often feel overlooked once a dementia diagnosis is given, with limited guidance on what happens next or how to support everyone involved.
- True integration of health and social care requires unpaid carers to be treated as central partners, not an afterthought or a “fifth emergency service”.
- Lived experience from carers, when included in government groups and strategy work, can challenge assumptions and push for fairer, clearer implementation of carers’ rights.
“It’s no longer just about love and relationships. That’s become something more – and that’s when you realise, oh gosh, I’ve not looked after myself here.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? Here, the focus shifts slightly onto dementia and unpaid caring, but the themes of sacrifice, burnout and fighting for better support will feel very familiar to anyone dealing with alcohol or any long-term condition in the family. Host Pete Hill chats with guest Ceri (often referred to as Kerry) Higgins, a former unpaid carer who looked after her father with mixed dementia and later her mother.
She talks about how she stepped out of her own career to care, only to realise years later, “If I knew then what I know now, maybe things might have been slightly different… I would have figured in that too somewhere more maybe.” It’s a brutally honest reflection many people in recovery will recognise: loving someone so much that you quietly erase yourself.
Ceri describes the emotional toll of 11 years of caring with just 11 days off ill, the isolation, and the financial hit of giving up work. She highlights how long it can take to even accept the label “carer”, and how families are often told, “You can manage, can’t you? It’s your family,” while support and benefits lag far behind reality. Rather than walk away after losing both parents, Ceri channelled her experience into study and advocacy.
She completed a degree, is working towards a master’s in dementia, and now sits on the Welsh Government’s Cross-Party Group on Dementia, pushing for unpaid carers’ rights, proper involvement in decision-making, and genuine integration between health and social care. This conversation blends personal story, policy talk and a few sharp jabs at bureaucracy, but it’s grounded in compassion and practical experience.
If you’re supporting someone with addiction, dementia or another long-term illness, Ceri’s story may prompt you to ask: where in all this care do you fit in, and what support could you be asking for today?
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