Today’s guest on our podcast is Louise Thompson, who has set up the app Myfolks.

She tells us about growing up in a particularly poor area in the west end of Newcastle, in the North East of England.  Louise’s first job was at the Freeman Hospital where she was involved in some cardiovascular research that was published in a medical journal. Through this work she managed to gain admission to Northumbria University, where she graduated with a degree in Law.

After gaining an MSc, while working in a senior corporate leadership position in Hampshire, Louise’s parents, who lived in the North East, became ill with dementia. There followed a desperate time, travelling backwards and forwards to support her parents, whilst working full time and managing the family home.

She talks about the issues her parents had, and although not needing personal care, they did need practical and emotional support. This is when she realised that she had to find some help but couldn’t find any. 

So, she began to think about creating an app that would connect people who could provide support for those families who couldn’t book ahead and needed it in real time.  Then, the app Myfolks was created.

Louise shares the challenges she had from the time taken to set up the app, the cost and the issues of being a solopreneur.

She shares that one in seven of us is now caring while still working, and how it has a disproportionate effect on women in the workforce. In addition, there can be even greater challenges for the smaller number of men who are carers, and the impact it can have on their ‘masculine’ identity and their self-esteem.

She talks about the important need for employers to understand when their employees are struggling with caring responsibilities for their parents, highlighting that it’s not just the pull on their time, but also the emotional strain.  

Presently Myfolks is in the North East, Cumbria, St Helens, Warrington, Humberside, Lincolnshire and Sussex. Louise aims to focus on the coastal towns and the outskirts of large cities, because they tend to have a higher population of the elderly, and often have fewer services.

You can contact us at the following:
Louise Thompson: https://www.myfolks.uk/
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/