Miriam, who is 77 and recovering from cancer, had her life torn apart when she had to choose to care at home for her 89-year-old husband Ian, while her sister Jennifer (73, with young onset dementia) was placed in assisted living accommodation. Ian was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2020. Over 220,000 people are unpaid carers for a sick or disabled person in Northern Ireland. That’s one in eight people. Caring for people at home reduces pressure on the health and social care system, and it reduces the number of people in residential care and hospitals. Miriam said she had to ‘let one go’ to look after the other: ‘It is just exhausting.’ The Praxis charity has appointed the first dementia coordinator, who will focus entirely on carers. The last carers strategy was published two decades ago. Northern Ireland lags behind the rest of the UK in supporting people battling the dementia journey alone.