A DORSET group is urging people to wear whacky hairstyles in a bid to raise awareness of helping children who have to care for family members.

MYTIME Young Carers is urging people to don weird and wonderful hairstyles for its national Hair2Care campaign.

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A spokeswoman at MYTIME Young Carers, said: "We know that young carers provide invaluable support to their families, but lots of people don’t realise how much they really do, because it happens behind closed doors.

"Young careers can feel isolated, invisible and lonely because they don’t have much time to see friends or because they don’t feel they can talk about their responsibilities."

Thousands of children across the UK are young carers, meaning they are responsible for looking after a family member who has a disability, illness, mental health condition or who misuses substances, often at great personal cost.

MYTIME supports carers as young as five years old, who may be carrying out anything from cooking to doing laundry to physically helping a parent get up and dressed every morning.

For more on this, visit: www.mytimeyoungcarers.org