Together We're A Team

Life was always going to be busy for mum-of-four Claire Thould. But when her daughter was diagnosed with a rare condition, it turned upside down. Here, she speaks to Joan McFadden about the challenges

Claire Thould’s alarm goes off at 6 am, but the busy mum is already awake. With four children, aged from seven to 15, there’s no time for lie-ins. Her daughter Kaela, 12, needs her more than most little girls need their mums. Kaela is entirely dependent on her.

‘She has four-limb spastic cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, epilepsy and is registered blind,’ Claire, 41, explains. ‘She is also orthopaedically challenged, so she can’t use her limbs as others do, and has had several operations on her hips, and recently had her spine fused from neck to buttocks.’

But Claire and her optician husband Mark have an amazing ability to accept the impact of this, and they’re not looking for pity. They simply want to enjoy life like any other family.

‘Day today, we just get on with it,’ Claire, from Monifieth, says. ‘It is what it is. We start at 6am, get medication organised for Kaela, change her nappy and give her a wash.

‘I drop my eldest Aaliyah [15] at school, then Iliana [8] and Kali [7] at primary school, and finally I take Kaela to her specialist school. It’s non-stop. And on days when Kaela has a hospital appointment or a check-up – which is often – my day becomes even more of a juggling act.’

Claire previously worked in retail, but gave up her job when she became a mum, and is now Kaela’s full-time carer.