Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FOSTER CARER
Clutching a bunch of white roses, Carol Vorderman lets out a shriek and flings her arms round Betty Mcglinchey, the TV host and national treasure greeting this humble foster mum like a long-lost friend.
The last time they met was on the stage of the Pride of Britain Awards in 2014, when Betty picked up the Local Hero gong for opening her home and heart to hundreds of foster children.
As she and Carol chat at the Avon Gorge hotel, near Carol’s home in Bristol, Betty tells her: “I’m surprised you even remembered who I was.
“I always watched Pride of Britain every year but I never thought I was anything like those amazing people on telly. I just got a job and did it. I don’t think I’m anything special.”
But Betty remains one of Carol’s stand-out winners from the 20 years she has hosted the Pride of Britain Awards, in partnership with TSB.
Betty had the audience in hysterics – upstaging Bruce Forsyth by joking she was 65, 10 years younger than she was.
Most of all, she won the hearts of everyone for the help she has given to the hundreds of youngsters who have passed through her terraced home in Coventry over four decades.
Carol tells her: “I don’t know how you do it, I really don’t. It’s your whole life, it’s sharing your bathroom, your kitchen, sharing everything, and for over 40 years. To have that level of love and compassion, that’s what makes you such a special person. I think that anyone who fosters just one child is amazing. And you’ve fostered over a thousand.”
Betty tells Carol she has fostered another 30 or so children since they last met and the total now stands at 1,347. Carol exclaims: “You’re still doing it?” Betty says: “I’ve got two at home at the moment. A 17-year-old from Somalia who fled the country after his brother was killed. And a 14-year-old local boy who’s a real Jack the Lad.
“He tries it on with me, especially when he wants to come home after the 8.30pm curfew. It keeps my mind in gear because I have to be smarter than him.”
And all at the age of? “Eighty,” says Betty immediately, adding: “Oh, I don’t dare lie about my age anymore.
“I don’t think I could get away with saying I’m 10 years younger any longer.”
Holding hands as they talk, Betty and Carol open up about their own difficult experiences in the past.
Betty reveals how, before embarking on her career in fostering, she lost four babies of her own.
She says: “My first boy died a few hours after being born. I miscarried the others, including twin girls. Then I had cancer and had to have a hysterectomy. I found out that I was born with a gene that meant I was unable to carry children.
“But then I look back and when I reflect on it, I think, life’s odd, isn’t it? I lost four children. And for my whole life I’ve been looking after four children, always four at any one time. I was meant to be a mum to hundreds of children.”
Carol says: “I hadn’t even thought about this, but I now think one of the reasons you made so much of an impression on me is because my father rejected me.
“He refused to see me for most of my life. He’d come to see my brother and sister, but never wanted to see me. I only met him in my 40s after he finally got in touch after his wife died.
“It’s left its scars, but that’s nothing like the lives of the children you deal with. At least I had my mother.
“But I feel for the children you look after and I know how much of a difference you are making in their lives.”
Betty says: “It’s just about doing what’s right and then taking each situation as it comes. Everybody knows in their heart what is the right thing to do, so as long as they are doing the right thing any problems are easy to deal with.”
Carol says: “This is what I mean about