Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Foster parents saved my life.. before I met them nobody had said they loved me or that they were proud of me..
Amazing carers who took in 20 kids
SITTING round the Christmas tree, laughing, joking and occasionally bickering, the Tester household is like any normal family home.
And that’s exactly what Derrick, 72, and Sue, 69, wanted to achieve for all the foster children in their care.
Now, after 20 years of caring for vulnerable children, they have reunited with the four who stayed the longest to talk about the impact they made.
Meg Lucy, 20, sums up the mood of them all when she declares: “Derrick and Sue saved my life. Before I met them nobody had said that they loved me or that they were proud of me.”
The couple are carers for Action for Children, which has supported them and the children through their fostering years. They are backing our Give Kids a Cracking Christmas appeal, which has already raised almost £44,000.
As the phenomenal fosterers were reunited with Meg, Nichkyla Anderson, 30, and sisters Lauren Newane, 24, and Sapphire Sugrue, 26, their stories showed how your money can make a difference.
Meg lived with Derrick and Sue at their home in Whitstable, Kent, between 2011 and 2017. She says: “Sue and Derrick are our world and they deserve so much recognition. They are amazing. This is my home and it always will be.
“We’ve all seen a lot of rubbish in our lives but Derrick and Sue have made us who we are.
“Even after I left, when anything bad happened I’d always remember the advice they had given. I really don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t come here.”
With the support of their foster carers, the girls all went to university.
Nichkyla was the couple’s first placement in 1999 and she stayed with them for four years.
The bond they formed was so strong Sue was Nichkyla’s birthing partner, when she had her son 10 years ago. Sue says: “It
SUPER FOSTER CARER