I help mum every day, in the morning I get her clothes ready. Dad does it sometimes, but he picks some strange colours like brown and red.

When I come home from school, I help with the cooking and the washing.

Because mum uses a wheelchair, she can't always reach things in cupboards or up high and she gets tired quite easily.

I have to help mum because if she tried to reach something and she fell out of her wheelchair, that would be a big disaster.

It's really unfair that mum has been forced to use a wheelchair, she really doesn't deserve it.

Alice Mitchell has been helping her mother since she was five

Before she was ill, she used to love sport like netball, squash and swimming and she can't do those things now.

She's the adult - and that means not having to rely on others, but now has to rely on me.

She says she feels as if she's robbed me of my childhood. She says she'd love to be able to walk the fields of our farm with me, but she can't do that now.

When she thinks about the things she'd like us to do together, it makes her cry.

I don't always like caring. I definitely have my off days, when I don't want to do things for my mum.

Sometimes I don't want to empty the dishwasher or help to prepare food. Sometimes I just want to relax, but I still have to help - it can be a bit of a pain.

I go to a young carers group run by the charity Barnardo's.

It's great because we don't have to talk about how we look after the one we care for, we can just have a night off and have fun.

And that's what we generally tend to do. Have fun.

I want people to know about young carers. If we didn't exist, the government would have to pay out loads of money for real carers.

I think the government should put the money into free activities for us. I'd like people to realise what we're doing.

I do feel proud about what I do. When other kids at school talk about how they're making an effort to help someone who lives next door or something, they'll only do it for about a month maximum.