Released On 17 February 2025

Rebecca’s blog: Take a Break

Hello and welcome to our unique blog post, brought to you by some dedicated members of our employee-led 'Take a Break' committee. This space is specially crafted for our colleagues who find themselves in the role of carers—whether they are supporting elderly parents, children, or partners who need short or long-term physical and emotional care.

In our group, we face a variety of challenges, but one common theme unites us: carers need care too. The pressures we encounter outside of work inevitably affect our wellbeing. As carers, we often feel isolated and misunderstood while juggling the competing demands of an unpredictable and uneven caring journey. This is compounded by the everyday pressures of raising a family, excelling at work, and maintaining our own health.

We, the expert plate spinners, recognize the importance of having a space where carers can be open, honest, and heard. Sometimes, we just need a place to vent! This blog is our collective voice, a supportive community where we can share our experiences, offer advice, and remind each other that we are not alone.

Another fine MS I have got myself into

Today, we're celebrating one of our own, Simon, who brings us inspiring, wise, and often humorous insights with us through Take A Break. Simon has faced numerous battles on multiple fronts. His wife, Sally, was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, and Simon has been by her side through the ups and downs of treatment, recoveries, and setbacks. At the same time, Simon has been dealing with his own health challenges, battling MS, which often floors him, sometimes quite literally!

Despite these challenges, Simon doesn’t feel that his caring responsibilities are burdensome, as Sally is great at taking care of herself. He sometimes cooks for the family, which is challenging because of his MS, but most of his role involves being there at appointments, being truly present, and asking the tough questions when needed. Simon describes himself as sometimes being a master of ignoring obvious signs and not always realizing when he needs to think about things differently, provide emotional support, or remember appointments. Despite Simon’s health challenges, family life continues with all the milestones and hurdles of raising a teenager too.

Simon has started to focus on the positives of having MS. He reflects that the challenges he used to face now seem quite mundane. He realizes how many amazing people are around who support, inspire, and help, each dealing with their own life challenges. In September 2024, Simon completed the entire 10k route through “MS Walk London” with the support of his wife and son. He shared with us that this felt as physically and emotionally demanding as the marathons he has run in the past.

At work, our various employee-led committees, like Take a Break, help us all to be our full selves. Simon believes that overcoming challenges builds skills, strengths, and resilience. In the MS community, Simon describes himself as an MS warrior with super skills. He didn't understand this terminology before, but now he is becoming it. This reminds Simon of a powerful video created for World Down Syndrome Day, highlighting how our treatment of people with conditions shapes their reality. We often judge and see people in the moment at work, in social media, outside in everyday life, without knowing how they feel or what they are capable of. If we treat people based on this reality and judge them in that moment, they will become it. We need to recognize what people could be and assume they can achieve it. We all grow together.

Through Take A Break, Simon and the rest of us can strip away the glossy edits and share our hardships. Our discussions are raw and real. We see each other as human beings, no longer only professional, corporate colleagues. Simon describes Take A Break as “big virtual hug”.

ASSUME THAT I CAN | World Down Syndrome Day 2024

Rebecca and Simon are members of ‘Take a Break’, an inclusive employee-led committee in one of the UK’s leading insurance companies. The group brings together employees who have caring roles outside of work, to share challenges, advice and ideas and to support one another.