A young carer has explained how support from her fellow carers and a grant for young people has stopped her having to be "constantly worried".

Mhairi 'Max' Green, 18, from Kirkintilloch is a carer for three of her family.

Her mum was diagnosed with cancer late last year, while her dad is an amputee and her brother is on the autism spectrum.

She told The Herald: "My mum got diagnosed with cancer in October last year so it’s really quite new, and it’s only in the last couple of months I’ve really caught up with everything.

“I had to put my education on hold, stop seeing friends, and I’ve only now got back into having a balance to it.

“A lot of the time I’m having to not go out, not see friends, not do very much college work because I’m just constantly thinking about whether I need to get shopping in, if I need to get a washing done, who needs to go where for which appointment.

“The only way I can describe it is ‘a lot’, it never dies down it’s always very, very busy and everything happens at a million miles per hour.

"We have this Carer Centre and I joined up with them immediately, but they could only do so much to support me.

“Because my mum had only just been told she didn’t really want to take support, she was down and didn’t really want to admit she had cancer which made it a bit more difficult to get support in.

The Herald:

“But after a couple of months I had one-to-ones, they’re constantly checking in and asking what’s going on and mum started going to support groups as well which has kind of taken a bit off me.

“I don’t have to be constantly worried about how she’s feeling or what she’s doing because she’s always seeing somebody, which makes it so much better for me.

"I think my dad feels quite bad because he can’t do very much for himself so he can’t really help out around the house.

“So I think he feels quite bad because it’s all been left to me.

“My brother I don’t think completely understands that mum isn’t well, so it’s difficult to try and keep it that way.”

Read More: Homelessness, mental health and housing: Education cuts don't just affect students

The support of a local carers' group has also been crucial for the student, who has recently been accepted onto a university course to study child nursing.

She said: "They said ‘just take time for yourself, try not to think about them constantly’.

“Once I got into that mindset I realised I could do all those things – I just got into University two days ago.

“So it made it clear that my caring wasn’t going to hold me back.

"When I’m with the group we kind of make a point to try and not talk about what’s happening at home, so that we have some form of normality around it all.

“But when something happens you can put it on the group chat and everyone starts coming in with advice and support, and it’s great to have other people who may not be going through the same thing but who do understand how it feels.

“They know what it’s like to give stuff up and not have the same opportunities, and that’s really great.

"On the social side of it I’ve had so much support from my friends. They’re always showing up at the house and are constantly like, ‘let me come over!’.

“One of my friends brought me a tray of donuts and I was going, ‘I can’t eat all this! What’s happening here?’

“I’ve had really great support, which I know a lot of people don’t have, and I’m grateful for that.”

Young Carers Grant, paid by Social Security Scotland, is available to those aged 16-18 who spend 16 or more hours a week looking after someone who gets a disability benefit. 

The grant was introduced in October 2019 by the Scottish Government to help young people with caring responsibilities and is part of a wider package of support for young carers funded by the Scottish Government. 

However, Holyrood figures suggest around 25% of those eligible in 2022-23 did not apply.

Ms Green said: "A lot of carers who I met in my group were actually at my school and I remember saying to them, ‘how did you find the application for the carer’s grant?’ and they were like, ‘what’s that?’.

“I didn’t know about it until I first applied at 17.

“The thing is that £300 is a lot of money, especially when it’s mine and I can spend it on what I want, I don’t have to think about spending it on things like travel and taking people places, it’s mine and I can do what I like with it.

“I don’t have to prove to anybody what I’m doing with it and I think that’s a really good benefit of it.”