When You're Looking After Your Parents, Who's Looking After You?
Women carry most of the invisible caring load. Raising their own children while managing their mum's food shop, their dad's GP appointments, the garden, and everything else that quietly keeps an older parent's life running. It is rarely acknowledged, and it is almost never optional.
If you are reading this, there is a fair chance you know the feeling.
At Gladys, we see it every day. It is a large part of why we exist. But we wanted to do something more useful than talk about it, so we have backed something that gives a little of that time back.
Why we sponsor grassroots netball rather than just talking about care
We have sponsored the Gladys Vets Netball League, run through Bournemouth Netball Association.
It is a space built for exactly that community of women, on and off the court. An hour or so a week that belongs to them, spent with people in much the same position, where nobody needs anything from them while they are there. For a lot of players it is the only part of the week that is genuinely their own.
Care, both paid and unpaid, is still overwhelmingly carried by women. Professional carers doing the work, and family members organising it around jobs and children. Backing grassroots women's sport is a natural extension of that. It is about supporting the women who hold communities together, rather than only writing about them.
What the sponsorship includes
We have backed weekly Player of the Match awards, with a voucher for each winner, alongside a trophy for the winning team, a prize for the runners-up, and an end-of-season prize for the player of the season. Winners choose something they will actually enjoy, whether that is a coffee shop voucher or something for the celebration afterwards.
The girls really loved the weekly Player of the Match packs, and it is definitely something I will be doing again next season.
Debbie, Gladys Vets Netball League, run in association with Bournemouth Netball Association
Sponsoring a local league is a small thing. But small, regular things are usually what hold people together when the bigger stuff is difficult, which is a lesson we take from the care side of our work as much as this one.
Most of the people who call us are women, and most of them have been holding everything together on their own for a long time before they pick up the phone. They almost never ask for anything for themselves. Backing a league where they get a couple of hours a week that are entirely theirs felt like a more honest way to support them than another leaflet about respite.
Alex Sorisi, Co-Founder, Gladys
Need help at home?
Gladys helps families across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole find trusted local carers and helpers. You can read how it works, tell us what you need, or call us on 01202 152 410.
Are you a carer, HCA or nurse looking for better pay and flexible work?
