Peter Lodge devoted his life to his son, David. He cherished every moment with him, even when David’s condition left them effectively housebound. Right up until he was 74, Peter would sleep on the living room floor beside David’s hospital bed. Not once did he see his role as a burden.
He was angry, though. He was angry at what he described as the “state exploitation” of family carers. Angry at the pittance paid in carer’s allowance to those giving up their lives to care for loved ones, propping up the UK’s ailing social care system in doing so. It was, he said, “insulting”.
In 2005, the year his son was registered blind, Peter felt so strongly about the treatment of family carers he wrote to the Guardian, accusing the government of “paying lip service to the vast contribution being made by such hard-working, selfless, undervalued individuals”.
