A mum who is a carer to her son said her credit card bills have been through the roof as the cost of living crisis worsens.
The woman, from Upper Glanmire in Cork, lives with her teenage son, and the pair of them have health issues.
Her 15-year-old son Liam has hearing loss, Asperger's syndrome, dyslexia, dyspraxia, severe ADHD and was recently diagnosed with arthritis.
Julie Anne Cunneen now wants to raise awareness about how she is fighting for help from the state, as she struggles with "no money for food and no money for heating costs".
She has sent multiple letters to her doctor, and other agencies, about her own health issues, which include deafness, arthritis and extreme burnout due to lack of respite care over the past fifteen years. - but was offered only six hours of home support for the year, CorkBeo reports.
Speaking to RedFM News on Friday, she said: "You just need to put it on your credit card and hope to god at some point in time you will find the money to pay it back, you’re taking from Peter to pay Paul."
Her arthritis means she walks with a walker, and she has found it difficult to get support from disability services.
She said: “You summon up the energy, you have really no choice but just to ignore the level of pain you’ve got yourself. Your body is screaming out that your joints are hurting you,
"You’re in an incredible amount of pain. And then when you try to wash him, he’s freaking out. For him, it’s a very sensory overwhelming feeling of being washed, of being shaved,
"He’s screaming at you. He wants to stop. And then when you stop, he’s screaming. He wants you to shave him.”
Julie said an appointment in Dublin can cost hundreds of pounds, and she added that she frequently pays up to €600 because she’s physically not able to drive there and home again in one day and has to book a hotel room.
She said she has continued to access support., adding: "We’ve spoken to everybody from Micheál Martin the whole way down to local TDs, local reps,
"We’re getting the standard reply- five or six of us will all get the same reply. Oh my god, the disrespect that all of us are getting a copy-and-paste reply! This is real. This is our lives,
"Do you know the way we were taught that if you’re in trouble or you feel low, you should ask for help?
"But what happens when you ask for help and nobody listens? What are you left with then? You’re left with just acceptance, this is it. This is what your life is going to be like,
"There are times when I just feel like getting in the car and driving away. When he’s really having a bad moment and I’m being hit or being beaten or he attacks me,
"Those are the moments when you feel there’s nobody protecting me. At that time when you’re awake at night, that’s when it’s the most frightening point of your life and you kind of think- would it matter to anybody if I died tomorrow?”
