A COUPLE who have devoted the last five years of their lives to helping adults with learning difficulties have urged others to join the scheme.

Linda and Roger Hayward, of Dorset Avenue, Great Baddow, joined the Shared Lives carer scheme in 2007, and have helped adults learn to read, use a computer and take the bus.

Roger, 66, said: "My sister's been doing it for many years and we thought that one day, when we had finished working, we would do it too."

The scheme, which is run by an organisation called Guide Posts Trust, is sponsored by Essex County Council and encourages households to care for adults with learning disabilities, just as a foster carer does for people under-18.

After retiring from their jobs as a wood machinist and a cook respectively, Roger and Linda decided to have a career change and undertook two years of training to become Shared Lives carers.

Linda, 63, said: "The idea is to enable them to live more independently.

"It's worrying for them out there in the big world – you're there to give them guidance."

For three-and-a-half years, the couple, whose daughter Tracy has also joined the scheme, cared for a woman called Laura.

She had previously been living in a care home in Witham, where she was the only able-bodied adult. "She was helping the old people out, but she was bored there," said Linda.

Laura was 34 and could not read or write, but Linda and Roger helped to give her the independence she needed, encouraging her to go to a special needs college, where she learned computer skills, and helping her with tasks such as getting the bus.

Sadly, in June last year, Laura died on her birthday after a long battle with cancer.

Linda said: "You get very attached to them – they become a part of your family. If you can't treat them as your family then there's no point doing it."

Since Laura's death, the couple have had numerous adults to stay as part of their respite care, to give full-time carers a break, but they are hoping to find another adult to move in with them soon.

Roger said: "If you have got the patience and the time then it is rewarding. You see them develop and you encourage them to mix."

At present, the number of people taking part in the Shared Lives scheme is minimal, with only five households in the mid-Essex region involved.

Linda added: "We want to make people aware that there is an alternative out there."

Joint manager of the Essex region for Guide Posts Trust, Steve Williams, said: "Because of the economic climate there is a big push to get the scheme used around the county.

"It's one of those things that not many people know about or understand but it's life-changing – quite literally.

"It particularly gives comfort to the parents of people with a learning disability if they themselves are getting older that there is someone, somewhere, out there to help."

Speaking about Laura, Steve said: "She was really floundering as the skills she had got were going backwards. She wasn't getting the attention she needed but she thrived with the Haywards.

"I believe the last three years of her life were very happy."

For more information about the Shared Lives scheme, contact Steve on swilliams@guideposts trust.org.uk.