There are many children in the UK who take on a ‘caring role’. They may have parents who are ill, disabled or suffering from mental illness.

Just two people support and help seventy young carers in Bedfordshire and they do a fantastic job. Friends and relatives were drafted in to help look after the handful of young carers who came on the Safari day. Sadly, they couldn’t stay for the tea at the end because they had to get back home. Caring for someone who is ill is a seven day a week job, and it’s much harder when you are only eleven years old.

If there are seventy known young carers in Bedfordshire, what does that work out to country wide? I know this; these children are saving the tax payers and the state a fortune, and in some cases paying for it with their own childhood.

The young carers who joined us were great - full of beans and good fun. The members of staff from Woburn Safari Park knew just how to relate to them and gave them a fantastic day. One member of staff in particular went above and beyond what was required and I would like to say a special thank you to him.

And yes, I did see the boys escape from the monkey enclosure – but at least they closed the gate behind them!!

Well done Nadine, you show via your blog every day what being a good MP is all about. I am on the candidates list and I read your blog every day, as we all do. I haven’t met another candidate, or anyone in CF, who doesn’t! Your blog gives more of an insight into what the role of an MP is about more than anything we have been told by anyone in the party. Please keep it up. It’s not just what you say, it’s the way you say it, in the very warm and human language that we, and the public like so much.

fantastic