I had the pleasure to speak with Nina Parry of Nina's Law about her life, her campaign and her plans for change.

Nina was in Thaliand when the Tsunami happened, and she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis less than a year later.

Having had to adapt her daily routine, life plans and family around the ever increasing complexity of living with MS, Nina started the campaign for Nina's Law which would enable people who have complex needs to be able to have their regular carers with them when they are admitted to hospital.

The reason for this is that regular carers understand their clients and the importance of this cannot be underestimated. Some hospitals like the Great Western Hospital in Swindon are very supportive but others are far less so.

Nina has many MPs who are also supporting her with her campaign and she has nearly 46000 signatures already.

For more information email ninaslaw@outlook.com

My guest today is David ‘Budge’ Price, talking about the trials and tribulations that have been ongoing with care for Gina.

This is the 4th podcast where Budge talked to me about Gina’s story. The first time was in October, 24, then December 2024 lastly, November 25. (If you haven’t heard Budge’s previous interviews, you may like to listen before hearing this one.)

The summer of ‘25 has been difficult for the family. After moving into their new home a time that should have been exciting turned sour when the reclining chair that the council sent for Gina to sit in was awful. As you’ll hear from our conversation - it was far from ideal – especially, considering Gina’s many needs. Due to the lack of comfort that the chair was providing Gina with, in the end, Budge had to go and buy a chair himself, which was incredibly costly. However, the difference the new chair has made has been incredible.

Following this the next issue the family had was a break-down between the care provider and Budge. He talks about the huge amount of stress he has been through over the last two years. Because Gina still needs care, to be taken to hospital visits etc, Budge never has time for himself. Care and loving his wife is his complete focus, and he was caring for her 24/7 – the entire time, morning to night.

Not surprisingly, it made him ill, so he approached their care providers to ask about having someone who could come in and sit with Gina while he had time to go out on his own; meet friends for a coffee; shop, or go for a walk. But the important thing to Budge was that it would be best to have one of the members of staff who were already working with Gina and had built up a great relationship. As you’ll hear, this wasn’t to be. The care provider didn’t listen. They didn’t once ask Budge what he and Gina needed. There was a complete communication breakdown – not between the carers who were already working with Gina, but with the office side of the care providers business.

Budge was becoming ill himself, and in the end he contacted a new provider who did everything you’d expect a good care provider to do – they asked what he and Gina wanted. They trained the carers that were going to work with her and spent time building the relationships. Now Budge is enjoying time to himself and feeling a lot less stressed.

If you want to find out about care in any shape or form you can contact me:

Website: https://shreevecareservices.co.uk/

Email: janet.shreeve@shreevecareservices.co.uk

My guest today is Kevin Griffiths of The Care Show in Swindon. He explains how he got involved in The Care Show, after a friend messaged him while he was on holiday and then told him exactly what she’d done, and how he, as someone who has great hospitality experience, could help.

Kevin goes on to talk about why he was so keen to join his friend in this venture, which they took over in August. Swindon as an area has a huge number of people involved in the care industry, but like many large cities and towns, they don’t have a space where they can come together and connect. The show will give people an opportunity to look at new innovations and ideas.

With The Care Show, they are looking to get people who work in care along so that they can have time away from their work to explore the new ideas, talk to other people working in the same industry, and also how they can take care of themselves.

One of the things that Kevin talks about is how expensive care is, and wanting to make it more affordable. People don’t understand what is possible when it comes to care or understand the diversity of needs in care. Again, these are the sorts of things they want to talk about at the care show – let people see what the choices are open to them. Kevin shares information about who is going to exhibit at the show too – some that you would expect, like care services and specialised equipment. Whereas some of the other things you might not have considered - includes will writers and powers of attorney.

We also talk about the idea of a care networking group in the future, to provide a supportive space for care professionals.

For those of you interested in going along to The Care Show Swindon, it’s on January 29, 2026 at the Double Tree by Hilton, starting at 9am. There are still stands available if you’re interested, they are available on the website.

To contact Kevin about The Care Show visit: http://www.thecareshow.co.uk