A CARER selected to present a posy to the Princess today spoke of how she dedicated her life to looking after her father.

Caroline Blackwell's 72-year-old father has a degenerative disease and his wife died four years ago.

Caroline, 37, had to give up her job as a care home assistant to take up full-time caring for him at their farm at Slaidburn in the Ribble Valley.

In spite of that, she is halfway through a six-year earth science degree with the Open University, achieving a distinction and a grade two in two of her modules.

"Dad's got to have somebody with him all the time," she said. "Sometimes you don't see anybody for days, apart from the postman. It's isolation.

"I don't really go out at all. I have friends in the village and from the OU but I can't go out because I have to look after dad and he can't cope with strangers. "

So how does she manage to fit in her studies?

"In the afternoons dad has a bit of a doze and I go into another room and get my books out," she says.

Through Carers Link she has received bursaries from the PRT that enabled her to go on a field trip in May and a revision weekend earlier this month.

Caroline first heard about Carers Link on the radio and later attended an information day.

"The main thing is the moral support, knowing there is someone there if you need help, that you are not on your own.

"You realise there are other people in the same position, having the same problems.

"You can't build a social life. You don't know what's going to happen at any given moment. Someone has got to be here 24 hours a day seven days a week in case he falls."

Kathleen Eastwood, manager of the centre, said: "People tend to think about carers being either young or old and there are a lot of carers in Caroline's age group." Another factor for carers living in rural areas is the remoteness.

Caroline added: "Sometimes you get lonely when people are planning things and doing things and you can't do it because you have got a person you care for to think about. And a lot of it's down to money.

"You can't go on an expensive holiday and if I do go away, I'm fretting about dad and ringing every ten minutes. If you are not there you worry they could have had an accident or a fall.

"The people at Carers Link are very supportive. Kathleen and the others are never more than a phone call away.

"It's just knowing you have got some support. You are not on your own. There are people in similar situations and Carers Link is there to back you up."

Caroline also has the support of her family and, clearly, family matters to her.

"I don't mind doing it. He's not a burden, he's my dad and I do get support from my brother and sister.

"My brother is up every day and he looks after the farm.

"I'm always there at mealtimes but if something does crop up, like my exams, my brother will make sure dad has had dinner and my sister will go and stay with him."