THERE’S NEVER A DULL MOMENT AND WE WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING
Julie Gaskell, 61, a full-time carer, and partner Tony, 61, a dog groomer, live in Chorley, Lancashire, with their three foster children. They have three grown-up kids, Lisa, 35, Georgina, 30, Lee, 26, and 14 grandchildren With 14 grandchildren and three foster kids, there’s never a dull moment in our house. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
We started fostering about five years ago, after Tony and I watched a programme about it on TV one night.
Seeing all these kids needing homes broke our hearts. So we did some research and decided to go for it.
An assessment took place around six months into the process and, once we were approved, we got our first child, an 11-year-old.
It was quite scary at first as he was very vulnerable.
His behaviour was horrendous and he was very angry. I lost count of the things he broke in the house. It was all frustration, he’d been in and out of five or six foster homes before.
But our backgrounds working in mental health helped – we knew we could make a difference.
Our boy is still with us, and is now 16, and he’s amazing, polite and lovely.
He’s in the local cadets, off to college in September, and hopes to go into the Army at 18. The secret? Patience, love and care – that’s all he asked for, and he got it.
Two years after he came to us, our second foster child arrived. Aged 10, he has very complex needs and has to go to a special school.
I used to sit up with him every night to reassure him nobody was coming to take him away from us.
To help, we got a puppy, Lola, who was a game changer. We said: “This is your puppy, you’re not going anywhere, you’re staying with us forever.” Then, 10 weeks ago, my birth son Lee moved out, and a 14-year-old boy arrived. He told us: “I don’t do school” and I said: “Yes you do”.
He’s settled really well and made friends, which is amazing.
When I look at the kids and see how far they’ve come, I feel so proud to have made such a difference.
Last May, I sadly lost my birth son, Philip. He had lung cancer, then caught Covid, and passed away aged 33. It was absolutely heartbreaking.
In those bleak, dark days it was the kids who kept me going. They gave me a purpose.
To anyone thinking of opening their own home up I would say, do it.
Our plan is to keep going – our family will never be too full.