Andrew Storey

My name is Andrew Storey and I am a 48-year-old social entrepreneur. I have been my dad’s carer for five years and in a long-distance relationship with my partner, Sara, who lives in Sardinia where she is a teacher, for nearly three years.

My blog is going to explore the challenges and triumphs of juggling the roles of carer, long-distance lover and social entrepreneur. Each one offers its own set of rewards, testing circumstances and needs, but when you mix them all together, well that offers plenty to blog about.

I met Sara when she was in the UK for a year, so we didn’t start off apart like this. We spent a lot of time together for a year, which could be described as the honeymoon of our relationship. However, she moved back to Sardinia in 2009, and so, since then, we have been ‘together apart’.

Managing these different roles involves a lot of planning, alongside a need to be flexible to respond to my caring responsibilities, developing projects (making a living!) and ensuring Sara and I manage to spend time together.

It has been a real rollercoaster ride and nobody knows  what the future holds for me and for us. But, for better and for worse, I will share the lessons I’ve learned and the joys and pains of living and loving in a situation and circumstances that simply shouldn’t work on paper.