I lost four children of my own but I was meant to be a mum to hundreds

So far for Pride of Britain favourite Betty, 80)

Betty. While most of us create problems for ourselves that don’t exist, she talks herself out of problems. She should have an agony aunt column. We could all learn from her.

“She sums up the spirit of Pride of Britain. It’s about people who don’t accept what society tells us is normal, and just do something extraordinary.”

Betty’s story began 44 years ago after she and husband Seamus moved from Scotland to Coventry.

There, she became best friends with fellow Scot Lily Martin, who died from meningitis, leaving two daughters, aged nine and 11.

Betty, then aged 36 and unable to have children, didn’t hesitate in taking the girls and raising them as her own.

She says: “I was with Lily in hospital and she said, ‘I don’t know how long I’m going to be in here, promise that you’ll watch them for me’.

“The doctor had told me she was going to die, but Lily didn’t know. I promised I would take care of them. I didn’t have any second thoughts. I knew it was the right thing to do.”

Shortly afterwards, Betty, who worked for Coventry Council, was asked by social services if she and Seamus would consider fostering.

The social workers had been impressed by how she had coped with the two girls, and thought she could help look after vulnerable children.

First to come into her loving home were three siblings, aged eight, five and four, who were meant to stay for a fortnight but were with her for 16 years. Hundreds more followed. Betty, who has been fostering alone since Seamus died 20 years ago, is also on call 24 hours a day and provides emergency care, sometimes arranging beds for children brought by police in the early hours.

She says: “I’ve had abused children arrive in the night, calls from police to act as an adult for a child who has either done or witnessed something horrendous, and spent weeks coaxing a child to eat, speak or come out from under the bed covers.”

Betty has only had to have five children removed. She says: “I have never met any bad children. Just some who are deeply affected by certain situations. Every day someone comes up and gives me a hug. I may have had them when they were four or five and they are now 20, but they remember me. My brother refuses to go with me into the city centre because he says the walk from the precinct to Boots takes around two days.”

Remembering how Pride of Britain began 20 years ago, Carol, who has hosted all of them, says: “In the first year, we gave awards to celebrities. Richard Branson got businessman of the year, Mo Mowlam won politician of the year. Then came these awards to ordinary people and the whole room

TO CARER BETTY MCGLINCHEY

fell silent. There were survivors of the Omagh bombings, a man who intervened in a fight and was blinded.

“It left me in floods of tears. Afterwards I said, ‘We need to make these awards just about ordinary people’.”

Betty says: “The award has opened so many doors. Now, when the council is making a decision about children’s services, they will consult me because I’m a Pride of Britain winner.

“The awards are making a much greater difference to the country than people might think.”

There are more hugs and kisses as Carol and Betty say their goodbyes and return to their very different lives.

It is more than an hour later that Carol texts and says, simply: “She’s amazing, isn’t she? I love her.”

EXTRA SMILE Carol with Betty now, and in 2014 IN GOOD HANDS Betty with two girls she was fostering in 2014