By Eliza Atyeo, Senior Commissioning Officer – Prevention and Wellbeing, and Dallis Gale, Commissioning Officer – Carers, BCP Council
Carers Week is a powerful annual campaign that unites communities across the UK to recognise and celebrate the vital contributions of unpaid carers. It raises awareness of the challenges they face and encourages greater support for those who care for others. This year’s theme, ‘Caring About Equality’, highlights the inequalities many carers experience—from financial strain and social isolation to limited access to education, employment, and healthcare.
Dallis and Eliza from the Prevention and Wellbeing Commissioning Team want to share their stories in the hope that it will encourage colleagues to recognise their own strengths and the power of people’s experiences. Strength-based approaches begin with recognising people’s experiences as assets, including those of ourselves and each other.
“We all face challenges. Let’s not hide them. Let’s use them to drive meaningful change.”
Eliza Atyeo – Senior Commissioning Officer – Prevention and Wellbeing
In 2021, I joined BCP Council’s Adult Social Care team as the Carers Commissioning Officer, supporting the development of the BCP Carers Strategy. Just weeks into the role, my father was diagnosed with secondary peritoneal cancer—an aggressive, incurable illness with a prognosis of less than a year.
My mother and I quickly became full-time carers, managing complex medication routines, coordinating appointments, and adapting to a strict diet plan. With backgrounds in care and nursing, we were able to step into the role, but nothing could prepare us emotionally. I continued working full-time from home, balancing meetings with caregiving—administering medication, preparing meals, and tending to the painful side effects of chemotherapy.
As a 26-year-old, I was navigating the emotional weight of my father’s diagnosis, supporting my family, and trying to hold onto a sense of self. When his condition worsened, we found ourselves providing round-the-clock care without external support. After a difficult weekend, he was readmitted to hospital and placed on palliative care. He passed away on 22nd September 2022.
This experience has shaped who I am personally and professionally. It’s given me a deep understanding of the realities carers face and the importance of listening with empathy. Lived experience in commissioning brings authenticity and ensures that people remain at the centre of our work. It’s not just about representation, it’s about true co-production.
Now, as Senior Commissioning Officer for Prevention and Wellbeing, I’m leading the development of our Adult Social Care Prevention Strategy, co-produced with people with lived experience, our workforce, and partners. The strategy recognises how peoples’ stories are strengths that can lead to meaningful change, champions co-production and recognises carers by supporting the implementation of the BCP Carers Strategy, Pan Dorset Carers Vision and the development of our ASC Co-production Strategy. It is a pleasure to be a part of something that has the power to positively influence people’s lives in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole areas.
Dallis Gale – Carers Commissioning Officer
When I reflect on my journey into caring, I realise I didn’t see it for what it was at the time. I was 21 when I lost my mom suddenly after surgery. Overnight, I became the primary support for my younger sister, who was just 13. I was already a single mom, raising a toddler, and now I was a full-time mom to two children, trying to keep our lives steady through grief. Two years later, I lost my dad to mental health challenges, after caring full-time for his own parents had slowly consumed his identity.
Soon after, I began caring for my grandparents, became a temporary Carer for my baby niece over a four-month period, and supported my older sister for nearly a year while she lived with me and was financially dependent on me as well. I was working full-time, studying full-time at university, running my own household, and managing every bill and responsibility on my own.
Back in the U.S., I never thought of myself as a Carer. Where I’m from, you just step up. That’s what family does. It wasn’t until I moved to the UK and joined BCP Council’s Adult Social Care team as the Carers Commissioning Officer in January 2025 that I really understood my own experience in that context. And I know I’m not alone in that. So many people don’t realise they are carers because they’re simply doing what they feel needs to be done for the people they love.
Alongside my lived experience, I’ve worked in mental health, oncology, and brain injury care, with a background in nursing and voluntary sector roles. But it’s the personal experiences that shape the heart of my work now. I understand what it means to keep going when there’s no backup plan. I know what it feels like to carry the weight of responsibility and to keep showing up. That insight is what grounds me in my role today.
I now co-chair the Dorset Carers Partnership Group, and I’m leading a bereavement project as part of an ICS collaboration. It’s a piece of work I care deeply about. I believe that strength-based practice starts with recognising lived experience, not just in others but in ourselves. That’s where empathy begins. That’s how we build better services: by understanding what it really means to care.
