"I try not to sweat the small stuff"

‘I try not to sweat the small stuff’

Vincent Dolan is the only male carer to be nominated in this category. The Mullahoran man is proud father to four children with autism: Shannon (29), Matthew (22), Erin (19) and Fionnan (17).

Vincent was always involved in his children’s care along with his wife, Martina, but took redundancy from his job to become a full-time carer in recent years.

Apart from his hands-on caring work, Vincent also finds time to serve on the board of Cavan Autism Parents Support (CAPS) group, and has held several roles in the charity since its foundation.

Every year since 2011, Vincent has also organised an annual fundraising cycle and 5k run event in Mullahoran raising in the region of €3 to €4,000 a year for CAPS in the process.

A keen runner himself, Vincent has also completed 15 marathons but, apart from the first one when he ran to raise money for a cystic fibrosis charity, he does the long-distance running “for myself”.

When asked how he manages to be a full-time carer to four children with varying degrees of autism, work with CAPS and fundraising, Vincent laughs: “I haven’t grown up properly myself, which helps.

“It’s been an interesting, rollercoaster life. Martina has been my partner throughout. You just have to take each day as it comes. I try not to sweat the small stuff.”

Reflecting on his life of caregiving, Vincent said: “I am a much more centred person. I am a lot more calm now.”

The busy father said, as a male carer, he is delighted to be nominated for this year’s award but it comes with a certain sense of responsibility.

“It’s not too often a male gets nominated and I feel a huge amount of responsibility as a representative for all male carers out there.

“We’re not the stereotype but, then again, stereotypes are there to be broken,” Vincent said.