Page 42 - Real Rochdale Issue 05 Summer 2019

carole kelly

WOMAN OF ROCHDALE

WOMAN OF ROCHDALE

Carole Kelly is the Woman of Rochdale 2019.

Carole, from Wardle, became the full-time carer for her son Josh Kelly, who at the age of six months
was confirmed to have ‘extensive brain damage’, in May 2016.
LUNCHEON She began the Jolly Josh group in September 2017 as “a coping mechanism and distraction” after

discovering there were no groups for young disabled children in Rochdale.

The toddler stay and play session was set up by Carole and her husband James with the hope to bring
families together, provide peer to peer support, share experiences, and eliminate isolation, especially
for children with disabilities and special needs throughout the borough.

Receiving the award, Carole said: “I wanted to organise a group with no questions asked, where
everyone could feel included and not isolated, and where we all understand what one another are
going through.”

After his condition deteriorated, Josh was taken to Derian House children’s hospice, where he died on
27 August 2017, just one month before the Jolly Josh group was due to begin.

Based at Springside School, the Jolly Josh baby and toddler group continues today in his legacy,
meeting every Thursday from 9am - 12noon, and was awarded charitable status in April 2018.