David became a career for his wife, Carol, after she suffered a stroke in 2010, and a heart attack in 2013.

He is a member of the Carers Tasmania board of directors, and also a person living with a disability being legally blind.

He said caring is a category that gets invented.

“Carers start out as husbands and wives, sons and daughters, siblings, even your neighbour next door,” he said.

“They take on that role, and they get that label slapped on them.

“Just as before the label of carer got slapped on, people worked as a team and they do their things in their families as they always have done. 

“But, perhaps the balance shifts a bit so that somebody is doing something a bit more than they might have done in the past.”

David said he retired early from his role as a social worker to care for Carol full-time. 

“There’s a huge financial impact in that,” he said.

“Then there’s the health impacts. I’ve learned a lot about myself as a person going through this whole carer thing.”

But, despite him being her carer, first and foremost he and Carol were still husband and wife.

“It’s a simple example of working as a team,” he said.

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“It’s not very practical to use the white cane when I’m pushing Carol in the wheelchair, so the way that works is that I push Carol in the wheelchair and make sure I don’t run into things, but I’m not capable of actually scanning for where we might be going, so Carol takes care of that.

“It’s a total teamwork thing.”

He said it was not unusual for carers to be people with a disability.

“Just by the nature of the fact that many of the reasons that people need care occur more in older age, and the carers tend to be people of that age,” he said.

National Carers Week was important as the community needed to recognise that through carers needed support, they also greatly enjoyed their roles, he said.

More than 73,000 Tasmanians are in a caring role.

“I think it’s important to have events like Carers Week so that we can put the stories out there for people who might be looking down the barrel of becoming a carer, and might be a bit terrified of the whole thing,” David said.

“Becoming a carer is a transitional thing, often you’re there before you know it.

“The other thing to remember is that there wouldn’t be carers without people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.”