Single mum who went without her own bedroom for 20 years for the sake of her kids has dedicated her life to caring for mother with dementia
MOIRA Scott has dedicated her entire life to looking after other people.
Having brought up two children as a single mum, she’s now a full-time carer for her own mother, who has dementia.
She was nominated for our Fabulous Mum of the Year Award by her daughter Angela, 30. Here’s why she believes Moira is such a deserving runner up…
My mum is my best friend - she brought my brother and I up completely on her own, and we never wanted for anything.
We grew up in a two-bedroom council flat. Mum didn’t have her own bedroom – she slept in the lounge for 20 years. She wanted me and my brother to have our own rooms, so she would get the sofa bed out every night and put it away again in the morning. She never complained.
My nan (88) was diagnosed with dementia 20 years ago, and it’s got progressively worse. My uncle was looking after her at first, but three years ago, when my brother (now 22) moved out to go to university, Mum moved my gran in.
She gave up her job in the local shop, which she was quite nervous about, and became her full-time carer. My nan is so dependent, she can’t walk or feed herself, so Mum has dedicated her life to looking after her.
It must be really difficult to see your mum like that and have to do all that for her, I can’t imagine how it feels, but she’s just put that aside and gets on with it.
She’s made changes to her house; she’s had a special hospital bed put in the bedroom and the toilet and shower has been adapted.
Mum has some people come in to help her get Nan out of bed at around 8am – she’s hurt her back trying to physically lift her – but they’ll only be there for 20 minutes. Then it’ll be down to my mum to feed her and take her to the toilet. She might take her to social clubs nearby so that she can interact, she’ll try to entertain her to keep her brain occupied.
Then she’ll make dinner, feed her, wash her and get her ready for bed. She has people come in for half an hour to give her a hand, and they leave at around 8:30pm. Once Nan’s in bed, Mum can’t leave the house in case anything happens. It’s like having a baby; she’ll just stay in, and then do the same the next day.
I feel so bad that she has to keep sacrificing; she never gets a break. I can’t imagine how challenging it must be to do that day in, day out, when you’re used to going out to work and socialising with friends. Now she can’t just randomly go for a drink because she doesn’t have much support to look after my nan.
My uncle helps out now and again but essentially she’s fully responsible for her. But she’ll never complain, she just thinks it’s the right thing to do for her family.
It’s such a shame - Mum did a great job with us, both of us went to uni, I’m now a qualified accountant, so this should be her time for sitting back and enjoying life without having to worry anymore.
This Mother’s Day we’re going over there – I’d love to be able to take her out but she has my nan to look after. She’s determined to make dinner for me and my brother, she won’t let us cook!
I’d like to hope there’ll be a time where Mum can put herself first for once. She’s given up her life and will continue to look after my nan, no matter how bad she gets, until the day she dies.
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Moira said: "This is absolutely amazing, thank you so, so much. Bless my daughter, I'm speechless! This has absolutely made my day, it's wonderful."
She will receive one of our luxurious Champneys goody bags (worth £50) as a runner-up prize.
Yesterday we told how fellow Fabulous Mum of the Year runner-up Stacey Mustill, 38, who woke up to find her husband dead on the sofa at Christmas, has raised £26,000 and set up a charity in his memory.
The winner of our competition will be revealed on Mother’s Day on Sunday. We’ll bring you another incredible runner-up story tomorrow.