Katy Styles
Katy Styles is a full-time carer and campaigner for unpaid carers rights. Previously Styles worked as a teacher, but had to give up full-time employment to care for her husband. In 2018, she founded the We Care Campaign, which supports unpaid carers and has won awards for it's campaigning projects.
Personal life
[edit]Styles worked as a geography teacher for almost 20 years, before leaving work to become a full-time carer for her husband in 2014. She has since also become a carer for her mother and mother-in-law and currently lives in Canterbury, Kent.[1][2]
She has been critical of cuts to disability benefits like Personal Independence Payment and the knock on impact such cuts has on carers who claim Carer's Allowance.[3]
Styles co-hosts Care Fully Considered, a podcast that focuses on unpaid carers.[4]
We Care Campaign
[edit]Styles founded the We Care Campaign in 2018, which runs as a support group for unpaid carers.[2] The group was set up after Styles became frustrated with the UK Government failing to launch a Carers Strategy despite over 6,500 carers and organisations contributing to a consultation in 2016.[5] In 2017, the government announced that plans for a Carers Strategy had been scrapped. In January 2018, the We Care Campaign was formed and launched an on online petition demanding a Carers Strategy be implemented.[6] A Carers Action Plan was published in June 2018. The petition was debated in the Commons in March 2019, with Caroline Dinenage explaining that carers would be considered in a upcoming Green Paper focused on care and support.[7]
We Care was awarded the Best Digital Campaign award at the 2020 Sheila McKechnie Foundation awards.[8]
In 2023 the group began working with Oxfam on their Domestic Dusters craftivism project that highlighted unpaid carers voices.[2] Run with Vanessa Marr, University of Brighton lecturer, the project invited carers to embroider yellow dusters that were later displayed in Senedd building.[9] In 2024, the project won the Creative Arts Award at the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards.[10]
In the lead up to the 2024 United Kingdom general election, We Care Campaign published a five point call to action from parties to support carers, which included a demand for a national carer’s strategy.[11]
Within her work at We Care Campaign, Styles has also contributed to research around the impact on carers when they are subject to domestic abuse from those they care for.[12]
References
[edit]- ↑ Bagot, Martin (19 September 2025). "EXCLUSIVE: 'I'm a full-time carer - people don't realise they're one accident away from my life'". www.mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-09-14.
- 1 2 3 "Census 2021: 'It took me two years before I realised I was a carer'". BBC News. 2023-01-22. Retrieved 2026-09-14.
- ↑ Forrest, Adam (2024-05-01). "My husband has MND and we rely on PIP to get by - I'm scared about the changes". The i Paper. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "'Care Fully Considered' – A new podcast by unpaid carers – Dementia Community". 2024-10-07. Retrieved 2026-09-14.
- ↑ "'I gave up my job to care for my son and I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy'". www.mirror.co.uk. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "Campaigns to help Unpaid Cares in the UK | We Care Campaign". Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "Petitions - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "We Care Campaign < Sheila McKechnie Foundation". Sheila McKechnie Foundation. Retrieved 2026-09-14.
- ↑ Miller, Kate (2024-03-10). "Domestic is not a female word! The Domestic Dusters project". sussexbylines.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards 2024". MarkelUK. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "Your Voice Your Vote: 'Which party will care for the carers?'". BBC News. 2024-06-11. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- ↑ "ADOPTED: CEDA 'Making the invisible visible': identifying and responding to unpaid carers who experience domestic abuse from end-of-life care recipients". NIHR ARC Wessex. Archived from the original on 2025-04-29. Retrieved 2026-09-16.