13-year-old girl took overdose after caring for her dying mother for four years

It follows the tragic case of Deanne Asamoah, 13, who died from an overdose of morphine. She had been caring for her terminally ill mother in Bletchley, Bucks, for four years.

The teenager fell into a coma and died after taking an overdose of the morphine prescribed for her terminally-ill mother.

At the inquest, Thomas Osborne, the deputy coroner for Milton Keynes, recorded a narrative verdict and said that the tragedy was "a cry for attention".

He said he would write to Children's Minister Beverley Hughes asking why hundreds of young people are struggling to cope with such heavy responsibilities. He called for a proper inquiry into the issue.

The girl's mother said her daughter had been forced to care for her because her chemotherapy treatment was so debilitating.

She told the inquest that she was unaware of anything troubling her daughter, the youngest of her four children, other than her usual concerns for the illness and what would happen when she died. In the last year Deanne had joined a local support group for young carers.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers said it is "very concerned" about thousands of young carers aged under 18 who it says are in a "desperate situation" caring for sick or disabled relatives.

A spokesman for the Trust said the 2001 census showed there are 175,000 young carers of sick and disabled relatives in the UK. This figure does not include child carers of alcoholics or drug addicts.

The trust said that at least 13,000 children, some of them of primary school age, are caring for sick and disabled relatives for more than 50 hours a week.

It believes that a "significant number" of serial truants from school are taking time off for caring duties.

Alex Fox, an assistant director of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, said: "It should not take a young carer dying for people to get interested in the issue. It should be interesting that so many children are being carers for family members and that so many families are left to rely on their children for care.

"It really should not have to come to that to understand that young carers are taking on the kind of responsibility that we do not think children should have to take on."

Ms Hughes accepted that support for young carers was "not acceptable" in some cases. But she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Government had put the needs of such children "in the frame".

"They shouldn't have to miss their childhood. There is support - both from children's services now, which are increasingly integrated and designed to offer a very individualised tailored package up support, and adult services across the piece, whether that's mental health services or adult social care," she said.

"(These) should be combined within local authorities to make sure that every family gets the level of support they need."