Salford residents have the chance to celebrate Carers Rights Day an impactful day that lets everyone reminisce on their employment journey.
A carer is a person who provides unpaid care looks for a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction, and cannot cope without support.
This year’s theme is ‘recognising your rights’ and the aim is to help carers recognise and understand their rights, and to access the support available to them, whenever they need it. 
Kay Fairhurst, who has been the Secretary of Salford Disability Forum for 17 years said: “A lot of people don’t know where to go to find out information about what they need, particularly disability.”
She works for Salford Disability Forum, a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee in Salford.
They help disabled people in Salford living with long term health condition, and strive for advocacy for people who need assistance.
They support them in having those conversations, find out what they need and get them help.
The forum also sign post session, go out to community buildings and provide information about the services in Salford.
The charity also work with older disability groups, and run a work club every Thursday at Langworthy cornerstone, for anyone looking for jobs in Salford.
She said: “We are all volunteers, and everybody has a disability, our chairman is deaf and blind.
“I have an eye condition and a physical disability as well. The difficulty is that a lot of carers don’t see themselves in that light.
“They don’t realise they’re carers, they aren’t comfortable putting that title on themselves, they see it as something they’re doing as a family member.”
Kay continued by saying: “Salford Council gives us a grand every year, it pays for our rent and running costs, like printing an hour, going out and travel expenses.
“We are always looking for funding to get interpreters who end up always being busy.
“We are quite lucky because as volunteers we don’t generate a lot of financial troubles, but trying to recruit people can be quite difficult, not everyone wants to speak for themselves, they prefer being a social group.”
For more details of the organisation – call 07592 100 538, or email chair@salforddisabilityforum.com and if you’re interested in volunteering, click here.
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