Melksham Carers Champion steps down

Melksham’s Carers Champion has stepped down from the role, after over a year of raising awareness of unpaid carers in the town.

David Walker was appointed as the Melksham Carers Champion last January by Wiltshire Council and has dedicated over a year to promoting Melksham as a carer-friendly town.

“There are several hundred unpaid carers in Melksham and my main objective has been to promote Melksham as a carer-friendly community and being in this role has given me the opportunity to do that,” he said.

“One of the key things I have done was set up and facilitate the Carers Café at the Kings Arms in town with Carer Support Wiltshire. It was a space where people could come and chat to me and I could signpost carers to other services if they needed support. It’s on the first Wednesday of every month and has been really valuable.”

David has lived in Melksham for 10 years and was an unpaid carer for 12 years for his wife Georgina who died from Alzheimer’s disease. He said, “Being a carer is mentally, physically, emotionally and financially challenging. When the person that you care for dies, that leaves a hole in your life and getting back out into the community is very difficult. For most of my time living in Melksham, I have been a carer.”

Highlighting the need for the government to give unpaid carers more support he said, “I am dismayed yet again that the government has put carer support back, although it was promised for the last four years. Nothing has been done to support unpaid carers. We have an MP who has recently run a Pub of the Year competition but has not given unpaid carers support.”

Alongside his work as a Carers’ Champion, David has also been a volunteer and director for Healthwatch Wiltshire and has volunteered at events to raise awareness of dementia.

Giving advice to whoever takes up the role next, David said, “My advice would be ‘don’t expect too much.’ I’d like to say that I am very grateful for the support of councillor Nick Holder, who has been very supportive with issues that I have raised a few times at the health and wellbeing board. I am also grateful for Melksham Town Council’s support.”

Extending his gratitude to the town generally, David said, “I said in a presentation to Melksham Town Council recently that Melksham is a great community, there’s a lot of worthwhile things happening here and dedicated people.”

At the Melksham Area Board meeting on 14th June, cllr Nick Holder gave thanks to David for his work, he said, “I’d like to put on public record to play tribute to David Walker. Over the last 15 months he has been our Carer Champion which was a role from the Area Board that David reached out to take up. He has decided to step away from that role.”