Mayo woman eleanor is named carer of the year

MAYO woman Eleanor Ryder has not taken a day off for nearly 19 years, since her husband Seamus contracted viral encephalitis and suffered an acute heart attack. Mrs. Ryder, who is in her 60s, was named as 2014 Carer of the Year at the annual Irish Red Cross Carer of the Year awards in Dublin’s Mansion House.

Encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain, left Mr. Ryder with permanent damage to two areas of his brain in 1995, resulting in regular epileptic and anxiety-based seizures, dramatically reducing his motor skills and memory problems. Seamus also suffered an acute heart attack four years later.

As his carer, Mrs. Ryder monitors her husband each night for seizures, hallucinations, part-paralysis, chest pain and unconsciousness.

Daughter Jennifer, who nominated her mother for the award, told how her parents will not go to sleep before 3 a.m. as her father is so scared of having another seizure. “Mum has not got a full night’s sleep since 1999 and sleeps on the floor or a chair when dad has to go into hospital as he cannot communicate with the nurses himself,” she explained.

Carers in Mayo give more than 161,000 hours unpaid care to the county’s sick, elderly and vulnerable each week.