By Your Side
By Your Side Ltd was established in November 2015 by Sarah Joubert.
Sarah has worked in the care industry for several years and decided to set up By Your Side after developing skills throughout the sector. Sarah fell into this position after caring for her mother who suffered from a terminal cancerous brain tumour.
“During caring for my mum through her illness from diagnosis to her eventual death, we experienced very personal moments that gave me true insight into what it means to be a carer. I felt the isolation and burden of becoming my Mums carer. The guilt of thoughts I had due to stress and frustration of not being able to help her. My relationship changed with my mum, no longer the daughter but a role that no child should have to experience. I experienced all the heartache of watching a loved one suffer and eventually die whilst feeling alone and helpless.”
Knowing the importance of knowledge and support became very important to Sarah after she worked in the care industry following her mums passing. And now she is passionate about sharing this knowledge and the available support that is out there with those who are in a similar situation.
“During my mum’s illness, she stopped verbally communicating and eventually stopped her motion skills too, until one day out of the blue she spoke to my youngest brother. He said in passing that he was dropping off his girlfriend and would be back soon, in response my mum suddenly said “you said that last time and didn’t come back for ages”. They were the first words she had spoken for months! Ever since then I have lived and worked with the attitude that just because a person cannot speak or appear that they can not communicate, they may be trying to.”
Because of this experience, Sarah treats everyone as though they are communicating even if the words don’t come out. With this attitude, she has seen results from others suffering from terminal illness or dementia and encourages others to let people live their lives as
they wish and not how others think they should.
“My philosophy is ‘You are on an adventure with dementia’, you can live well with the illness as long as you join them in their world and stop trying to drag them back to a world that they no longer believe exists. By helping families to understand this, we have seen families become stronger and relationships returned to their rightful structures. This is why I set up By Your Side Ltd, to offer other carers the support that I didn’t have and ensure that no one goes through any illness or the caring of a loved one without someone by their side!”