Super mums!

Foster carers, daughter and mother Christine and Linda Garforth

Mother and daughter have opened their hearts and homes to children in need
A MOTHER and daughter are making a real difference to children in Oldham who need foster care.

But the shortage of carers is so acute, that for every child they take in, three more are waiting for help.

Linda Garforth stopped counting when the number of children she has fostered over the last 20 years reached 100.

She has a special quality and an abundance of love which makes her able to open her heart and her home to children who need help.

And growing up helping her mother ease the way for troubled youngsters prompted her daughter, Christine to follow her example.

“I had no doubt I would always foster children,” said the 28-year-old, who has two children of her own, aged nine and five.

“I get so much out of it. It can be difficult, but the rewards are immense. To know you have made a difference to a child’s life is wonderful, and I know I have given the babies who come to me the best start I possibly could.

“The problem is you do get attached to them, it’s like bringing up a baby of your own, and when they go it’s heartbreaking.

“But they have to go, there are so many other children who need help.”

Linda (53), lives in Henley Street, Chadderton, and her daughter lives a few yards away in Fife Avenue.

Christine and her twin, Catherine, were just seven, and their older sister aged 10 when the first foster child was welcomed into their home.

Asked if it ever made them feel “pushed out,” Catherine said: “Never. If anything it made us feel more important because they were always younger than us and we were helping to look after them.”

Linda believes her own children are all the better for the experience. She recalled how she became a foster carer. “I always had a house full of children because they seemed to end up here when their mums were at work or had somewhere to go.

“I saw an advert in the Oldham Chronicle asking for foster carers and I thought ‘I could do that’.

“Rather than look after children who had families, I thought I could do it for chidden who had no-one to look after them.

“I thought maybe I wouldn’t be allowed to foster because I was divorced, but I rang anyway, and they said anyone was welcome.

“I talked it through with my children, because you don’t foster as a person, you foster as a family.”

Linda said: “You see first-hand the things you see on TV, like children being abused and neglected. We have seen children eat a banana or an orange without being peeled because they have never had one and don’t know any different.

“It doesn’t shock me any more. It can be upsetting, challenging and sometimes hard work, but you feel you can help to turn that child’s life around.

“To see a child who wets the bed, doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from or swears like a trooper and never goes to school, grow from a child that hates themselves into someone who loves themselves and believes they are worth something is a tremendous reward.”

Linda fosters two “long-term” children, aged 11 and 15, who will stay with her until they are 18, and who she says are part of her family.

She also has room in her home for a short-term child who can stay anything from a couple of nights to two or three years.

Christine fosters only babies, which fits in more easily with the demands of her own young family.

The under-fives are easier to foster out, while older children are often shunted around between carers until they find someone prepared to take them long-term.

Linda said: “There is a huge shortage of foster carers for siblings, who often end up being split up, and older children.

“Those who don’t find a home end up in a children’s home. We often dream about winning the lottery so we could buy seven or eight bed-houses and take more children in,” said Linda.

The advice from both women for anyone considering fostering is: “Just pick up the phone.”

Linda said: “I have said to so many people ‘go for it’. You have to go through the training, find out what fostering is about, and take in a child to know if it’s for you.

“Some people find they can’t do it, it’s too heartbreaking when children move on, but at least they have tried, and there is no obligation to continue.”

Each foster carer who takes in children from Oldham social services has a dedicated social worker, which Linda described as a “lifeline,” offering constant support and help to deal with any problems.

“I wouldn’t live any other way,” said Linda. If you feel like you are not making a difference, or you get fed up, then it’s time to stop.

“You do get a budget for each child, so foster carers are not financially out of pocket, but it’s not a job.

“I don’t do it to earn a wage, I do it for the love of it.”

Christine features on regional radio and TV adverts as part of the “You Can Foster” campaign to encourage people to become foster carers.