That’s how my boss used to describe the seaweed and algae on the jetty when the tide had gone out.🌊🌊

It was an old wooden steep rickety thing that had been repaired🛠 many times and it was bloody hard work dragging the boats up at the end of a days sailing all kinds of weather☀️🌦🌩🌤. Of course high tides weren’t so bad but low tides ,you can imagine.

All that didn’t matter to me though. I found somewhere that I wanted to be . Something that I loved doing and I found my “Gramps”😍.

I’m not going into details because I’ve moved on but wanted to mention this guy because I really feel that when life is tough it just takes one thing one person to make all the difference.

I used to go sailing ⛵with my high school. My PE teacher was good, Mrs Hanham, she always did more than asked. So Gramps kinda knew me. After school i went to 6th form for 1yr then quit, I’d had enough. Long story short Gramps said come work for me⚓.

I was broken, he built me up and helped me believe it was ok to think for myself. He was so calm . We laughed and joked all the time🤣 . He taught me things. Gave me responsibilities which led to me getting confident. For the first time I believed in myself not what i was told to as a child.

There was also a marine biologist🐡 at the centre who had a dog called plunket🐕. When the biologist went on the water with students plunket used to sit at the top of the jetty, waiting for him to come back. We also had a cat. One day we caught the cat playing with a mouse🐀🐁🐁🐁 that then started spontaneously giving birth! As the students were on their way back we thought it appropriate to remove the massacre outside the centre as it was sausage casserole for tea and it may have just put them off.

It took awhile to get the mummy carcass from killer cat😾 but we did and then as we went to lock her away in the kit store , we turned around and dopey plunket was sat licking his lips 🐶…..barf…..he’d eaten the babies.

I also learnt some amazing facts whilst working there . Did you know that some barnacles penis can reach up to 50 times the length of their own bodies. I spent ages watching the fish tanks in the class room hoping to see .

At times us staff would sleep in the classroom on mattresses. When the biologist trawled for samples, he’d save crabs for the octopus at the local sea life centre. He used to store them in these big buckets in the classroom. One night someone had taken the lids off the buckets and one of our staff members who’d slept on the floor, woke with crabs all over her screaming! So glad it wasn’t me as I’m petrified of crabs .🦀🦀🦀🦀

I think my experiences as a child have made me determined that my own children’s needs would be met.

Please don’t get me wrong I’m not claiming that my idea of parenting is the correct one but if i do see failings on my part where I’m letting them down or on someone else’s part then it doesn’t sit well with me.

It’s very clear that there are major funding problems across the region. Over the last few weeks I’ve spoken to different people who all believed that Young Carers in Thornton Fleetwood Wyre and Fylde were being taken care of by either Blackpool carers, ncompass ,lcc or wyre council basically nobody actually knows .

Banardos look after young carers in this area. They do the very best they can with the resources and funds that they have available to them.

There are only four members of staff managing this whole area. They do the assessments and if a child needs then they can signpost to other professional services within the NHS e.g. cahms. They can also make sure that school have the support in place for your children. There is NO community support available.

Community support is what we are desperate to get. Just a chat a coffee ☕a board game. The kids playing with other kids who understand them whilst they see their parents smiling chatting in the corner . A toddler group🤰👯‍♀️👯‍♂️ where there could be extra support for parents so they can still get out their child still socialises but so does mum or dad or both. A youth club🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ where kids can be kids .

It’s so isolating for children and parents but to fix the problem you have to help both and give parents and children a way of coping with their newly acquired lives.

All it takes is that one person. My Gramps helped me can you help someone……we need your help 😏

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1556840474401957/

Joanne