As Carers Week prompts conversations about supporting unpaid carers, I’ve found myself reflecting on something that has touched both my professional and personal life recently: advocacy. And more specifically, what it feels like when advocacy is not a professional role, but something you find yourself doing because you care. Over this last week I’ve found myself in tears, but even that word doesn’t really capture it. It wasn’t just sadness. It wasn’t something that could be neatly named. Underneath it was frustration. And underneath that was a kind of anger that I didn’t fully have anywhere to put. I felt like I wanted to scream, but not being able to. Whilst it wasn’t a single moment, it was an accumulation of many recent moments where systems can feel so difficult to navigate when you are trying to get the right support for someone who matters deeply to you. What has stayed with me since then is not just the emotion itself, but what triggered it. I have recently found myself in several personal situations where I am advocating for someone I love. Trying to make sense of processes. Asking questions. Following up….