Hi!

So... I'm in my early 30s, and have an 8yr old daughter. I'm a single parent, working full time, with very little in the way of a support network locally. I also battle with depression and the subsequent anxiety that can trigger from that.

My mother is 2 hours away from me, my sister is at the other end of the country and my brother is in the military. (So not much "in-person" support there!)

I do have some friends but most of them are a lot younger than me and none of them have children to really understand or support on that front. I also have a new partner, but the emphasis is definitely on "new" as we've not been together for 6 months yet!

My daughter's dad does have parental responsibility but lives in another part of my town about 20 min drive away. He also doesn't have her for any more than alternate weekends, and (what is supposed to be) ~5 weeks of the school holidays each year, although I get the impression that those timeframes are continuously dropping slowly but surely as time goes on. We have a tense but civil and functional relationship for the sake of our daughter but he expects me to pick up all the days that don't suit him and the new Mrs, and if I were to ask to switch a day or ask for him to chip in additionally... well, I have no chance and then it would also be held over my head. His mother, on the other hand, is amazing and I still have a great relationship with her, but she helps with childcare for her other grandchildren, so doesn't get much time off and I don't like to put on her too much.

I've had two dodgy smears, and today I've been for the colposcopy, during which they decided biopsy was necessary. I've got a wait of 2-6 weeks for the results.

Now, I'm not particularly stressed about the whole thing, but I am a realist (or pessimist, if you prefer!) so I'm trying to inform and prepare myself for the worst case scenario because that helps me to manage my anxiety. So I've spent the night doing some digging (or trying to) around the help that would be out there for single parents in my position, with not much luck...

Financially, I'm not overly concerned. I work for a government organisation that has good sick pay policies and a substantial death-in-service benefit. My union offers another death-in-service benefit and a hardship grant, and I'm also planning to investigate their life insurance, will writing and income protection insurance offerings. And I imagine that there would be an element of PIP and the NHS benefit schemes that I may be entitled to as well.

My questions are more around the other, more physical kinds of help that you can get and where from... I remember my dad being absolutely hammered by the chemo treatments, which concerns me, as does any surgical recovery period... So what's out there? I'm thinking of things like:

• Assistance with my daughter's school provisioning (getting to and from, managing homework, etc.)
• Assistance with actual parenting so the cooking, cleaning, getting her up and dressed, bedtime
• Home assistance in the way of housework, etc.
• Managing the zoo (dog walking and the like)
• Actually getting to appointments, if I'm unable to drive

Any reassurances/advice would be helpful. I did ring my local council's support line earlier today, but it just rang off...

Thanks in advance