Club Sandwich

Club Sandwich You've got them. We've got you. The community for those caring for ageing parents, and everything else. Real talk. No platitudes or BS.

Weekly podcast, live events across Australia, people who respond at 2am 'same'. Just expert support that works.

20/08/2026

Everyone treats the first anniversary of a loved one’s as a finish line.
Kerry Milligan reached hers with the candle lit every night and the chats with her mum still going, and thought she was managing well.
Then grief found her underground at MONA in Hobart, not long after she'd let a small piece of her mum go into the Derwent.
Here's how she describes it now:
"Grief is like a wave. Some days on the beach they're just little rivulets of water that make a really lovely tinkling sound.
Other days it's really heavy and dangerous. It never really leaves you … it just presents itself in different forms. And when it's rough, it can really drag you under."
If you're somewhere past the one-year mark and still being knocked sideways, there's nothing wrong with you.
That's just the shape of it.
Full episode with Sarah Macdonald and Kerry Milligan, out now: clubsandwich.community
If you've lost a parent, did the one-year mark hit you harder than you expected? 💛

19/08/2026

This one's not a giggle.
Kerry Milligan is back on Club Sandwich, and this week we're going somewhere we haven't properly gone yet - the long tail of grief. Not the first few weeks. The part afterwards, when everyone else has moved on and you're supposed to be fine.
It's a year on now since Kerry's mum Emmie died. What she's learnt is that you can't dodge it: "you've got to give in to it, because it's going to be there, and it's going to catch you by surprise. That's the hard part."
Sarah and Kerry talk about why the one-year mark seems to live in the body, about honouring someone, and about what happened when Kerry flew to Hobart carrying a little piece of her mum.

Out Thursday
https://clubsandwich.community

And if you've lost a parent: what caught you by surprise?
We'd love to hear it. 💛

Nobody hands you a bill for what caring for two generations actually costs. It shows up instead as a hundred small decis...
17/08/2026

Nobody hands you a bill for what caring for two generations actually costs. It shows up instead as a hundred small decisions nobody else sees: the promotion you don't chase, the hours you quietly cut back, the superannuation that stalls while you're busy holding everyone else together.

Sarah Macdonald has been living that reality for 15 years, three years longer than the average sandwich generation stint of 12.

“There's the lost hours of work, the stepping back, the not going for those pay rises in those other jobs, people leaving work for a while, taking unpaid leave," she says. "That is an impact on your career. There's an impact on your superannuation."

Her ask isn't complicated: "Just thank them. Acknowledge the unpaid work, the incredible way that they hold up the entire system."

Read Sarah's full interview with Marie Claire, link in comments below.

13/08/2026

Janelle's calendar has a colour for her dad, a colour for each of her two sons, and a colour for her job. It's meticulous. It's also, in a strange way, a bit heartbreaking, because the busiest part of her day doesn't have a colour at all.

"What's those small white gaps?" she was asked. "That's my full-time job," she replied, meaning her actual paid work has to be squeezed into whatever's left over once caring for her father and her sons is accounted for.

It's not glamorous multitasking. It's wake up, look at dad, check emails, chuck the washing on, all mashed into the same ten minutes, every single day, never one thing at a time.
Want more of Nicole and Janelle's story? Catch the ABC Compass special on the sandwich generation, streaming now on ABC iView.
This week on Club Sandwich, Nicole and Janelle talk honestly about what it takes to hold down a job, raise teenagers, and care for an ageing parent, all at once, and why balance isn't really the right word for it. Out now. Link in comments.

10/08/2026

This week we dropped a special episode of Club Sandwich to give you an update on the FACES campaign - almost 2,500 families have now joined, we've had national media coverage, and families have shared some incredible, and heartbreaking, stories with us.
Here's the heart of what's driving this: Mum's approval letter finally arrives. You think the hard part's over. Then you find out - approval isn't funding. That's another 12-month wait.
The government holds four different numbers on how many Australians are waiting for aged care. Not one of them is published.
The FACES campaign is asking for one simple thing: one number, published every quarter including how many people are dying while they wait for their care.
Last year, that figure was 13 Australians a day. More than three times the national road toll. And it's not publicly available.
That could be your parent. Or mine.
You can't track and fix what you're not measuring.
Be counted. it only takes a minute. Add your name and face at faces.org.au.

09/08/2026

We knew this story would resonate. We didn't expect A Current Affair to run it twice.
That's the response FACES has had since launch. Almost 2,500 families have joined a campaign built around one simple ask: a single, honest, published number on how many Australians are waiting for aged care — and how many are dying while they wait.
As Gohar Yazdani, CEO of COTA NSW, put it on air: "There's not a day that goes by that we don't hear a story of somebody who has been let down by the system."
You can't fix what you don't measure.
If you're worried about the state of aged care, add your name and be counted at faces.org.au.

08/08/2026

On Club Sandwich this week Sarah Macdonald asked the question outright: are we being gaslit about aged care? Gohar, CEO of COTA NSW, didn't disagree.
Here's why. Australia needs 10,000 new aged care beds every year. We're building 800.
Do the maths, people.
Here's another number worth sitting with. 4,812 older Australians died last year waiting for aged care they'd already been approved for. That's roughly 13 people a day, more than three times the road toll. And depending on which government report you believe, somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 more are still waiting in the queue right now.
Every bed that doesn't exist, every package that takes a year, gets filled by someone. Usually a daughter. Usually unpaid. The sandwich generation are quietly propping up the whole system, and nobody counts them either.
Count the people waiting.
Count the ones we lose.
Count the ones holding it together in between.
That's the entire ask behind our FACES campaign: publish these numbers every quarter. At the very least we deserve more transparency and accountability.
Add your name and your voice, and be counted, at faces.org.au

Catch more of Gohar this Sunday 9 August at 6.30pm, in the ABC Compass special Sandwiched with Sarah Macdonald. Streaming on ABC iView after that.
This week Gohar Yazdabadi joins Sarah Macdonald on Club Sandwich. New episode out now.
Link in comments or wherever you get your podcasts.

07/08/2026

This Sunday at 6.30pm, ABC Compass is airing "Sandwiched" a 30-minute special with our own Sarah Macdonald, going deep on what's now being called the sandwich generation: people raising kids and caring for ageing parents at the same time, often while still holding down a full-time job.

If that's you (or someone you love), you already know the maths doesn't add up.
There aren't enough hours, enough hands, or enough headspace … and most days you just get on with it anyway.
This isn't another piece telling you to "practise self-care."
It's a real look at what this stage of life actually involves, and why so many of us are quietly doing it without much support.

📅 Sunday, 6.30pm on ABC
🎥 Also streaming on ABC iview Watch the promo here, and if you've got a friend who's in the thick of it too, this is a good one to send them.

07/08/2026

Did you see our ACA segment? Add your name at faces.org.au

04/08/2026

This aired on Channel 7 National News this week.
These are families who did everything right : applied, waited months for an assessment, and were approved for the aged care they need. Then they wait again: 364 days on average, from the day they applied to the day care actually starts.
Last year, almost 5,000 older Australians died waiting for care they'd already been approved for. Thirteen people a day. Three and a half times the national road toll.
We've lodged a submission to the Senate inquiry into Support at Home, on behalf of the FACES alliance asking for one thing: one honest, published count of everyone in the queue, every quarter.
You cannot fix what you refuse to count.
It takes two minutes to add your name and face. Be counted. faces.org.au

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