Mummy's Little Helper: The Heartrending True Story of a Young Girl Secretly Caring for Her Severely Disabled Mother

The fifth book from bestselling author and specialist foster carer Casey Watson.

A recent census shows that there are at least 175,000 child carers in the UK, 13,000 of whom care for more than 50 hours a week. Many remain invisible to a system that would otherwise help them. Abigail is one of those children. This is her story.

Ten-year-old Abigail has never known her father. Her mother, Sarah, has multiple sclerosis, and Abigail has been her carer since she was a toddler - shopping, cooking, cleaning and attending to her personal needs. When Sarah is rushed to hospital, suddenly this comes to the attention of the social services, and Abigail has nowhere to go.

Though she doesn't fit the usual profile of a child that specialist foster carers Casey and Mike Watson would take on, they are happy to step in and look after Abigail. It's an emergency, after all - and all that's needed is a loving temporary home, while social services look into how to support the family so that they can be reunited.

But it soon becomes clear that this isn't going to happen. Sarah's MS is now at a very advanced stage, and the doctors are certain that there will no longer be periods of remission. Abigail's emotional state starts to spiral out of control as she struggles to let go of the burden of responsibilities she has carried for so long.

Sarah and Abigail insist that they do not need help, but with no other family to contact, social services are left with no choice but to find long-term care for Abigail, against their wishes. But Casey never gives up on a child in need, and she knows there must be another solution...

Casey Watson is a specialist foster carer. She has been working in this field for eight years after giving up her position as a behaviour manager for a local school. During this time she has welcomed 14 difficult to place children into her home.

As a specialist foster carer she works with profoundly damaged children, seeing each child through a specific behavioural modification programme, at the end of which they will hopefully be in the position to be returned either back to their family or into mainstream foster care.

Casey combines fostering with writing, usually late at night when the rest of the family is sleeping.

Casey is married with two grown-up children and three grandchildren.

The name Casey Watson is a pseudonym.