The Big Lottery has made a grant of £206,000 to The Princess Royal Trust Fife Carers’ Centre to enable them to expand services to carers throughout Fife from their recently opened new premises at 157 Commercial Street, Kirkcaldy.

The grant was made from the Big Lottery’s ‘Supporting 21st Century Life’ fund and will be distributed over the coming three years to fund three new members of staff at the new centre.

Mary Stewart, manager of The Princess Royal Trust Fife Carers’ Centre, says: "We had to move to bigger premises so that we would have room for new staff to expand our services to carers and meet the demand for our services. Now the Big Lottery has made it possible to employ those staff."

Mrs Stewart continues: "We are now gearing up to increase our support to carers to improve their mental and physical health and well being, to reduce their isolation, to increase take up of available services and to ensure that carers are ‘key partners in the provision of care’ throughout Fife."

The Princess Royal Trust Fife Carers’ Centre was established as a project in 1996, and is currently in contact with around 2,000 carers. The carers’ centre works closely with health and social work professionals to raise awareness of carers and to promote early identification and support for carers.

The Census 2001 indicated that there are nearly 34,000 carers in Fife, but the majority do not recognise themselves as carers and so are not aware that help is available to them as of right.