In the UK today, there are more than 6.5 million unpaid carers looking after a loved one who’s older, disabled or seriously ill. You probably know someone who is one of those people and yet they’ve never let on.

So often we have two different sides of the same life, one external and the other internal. For most people, this internal life is one they never expose to anyone else; thoughts, feelings and emotions that are never shared. And this can be a damaging position to get yourself into when the burden you carry is bigger than just your own.

To highlight the emotional weight placed on unpaid carers, British Gas worked with their charity partner Carers UK on a campaign encouraging people to see ‘Two Sides of the Story’. Created by Ogilvy UK to mark National Carers Week, the video captures the relationship between carers and their closest friends.

In a split screen, both the carers and their friends are interviewed separately about the carer’s personality and character. By positioning the responses side by side, we see how dramatically different the depiction of one individual can be. It highlights the difference between the person we project out into the world and the one we are when alone with our own thoughts.

The friends are then shown the carer’s responses, to help shift their perception of them. The film’s purpose is to encourage carers to open up to those closest to them, to share their burden so that they can get the help and support they really need.

The ongoing partnership entitled ‘Share That You Care’ will continue to celebrate the immense pressure being an unpaid carer can place on a person’s wellbeing and mental health. The campaign will continue throughout the year with other areas of exploration focusing on loneliness and isolation as well as the delicate act of balancing being a carer with navigating modern life.