The price I paid caring for my alcoholic mum from the age of ten | Mail Online

Stacey Cuddy became a full-time carer to her mother Mary when she was ten

Most girls her age would have been gossiping between lessons about clothes, make-up and their latest teenage crushes.

Yet for Stacey Cuddy, from the age of ten, school and friends became an afterthought, fitted in with the demands of washing, dressing and feeding her alcoholic mother, Mary.

When her father Michael, now 63, walked out of the family home unable to cope with the violence resulting from Mary's alcohol abuse, Stacey became a full-time carer overnight.

'My dad wanted me to go with him but I knew that if I left, my mum would die with no one to look after her. She needed me,' says Stacey, now 19.

Stacey was one of a growing army  -  estimated to be one million  -  of young people in the UK under the age of 18 caring fora parent and, in some cases, younger siblings as well.

To highlight these carers' plight, Stacey, who is the subject of an ITV Tonight documentary, met Children's Minister Sarah Teather asking her how the Government could help these children.

Stacey says: 'Iknow people who've been carers since the age of five. You're doing yourbest to be an adult and not only shop, cook and clean, but also be there for your parent to lean on emotionally.'

Mary, now 52, began drinking when Stacey was four.

'My mum would pick me up from school and she would seem fine,' says Stacey. 'My dad, who was a manager at a locksmith's, would always be at home waiting and he'd make sure everything was done in the house and that there was a meal waiting.

'But my mum became more and more aggressive towards him. By the time I was ten, he left. I was angry but I never resented him.'

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