Moreya living proof fostering does work
MOREYA Foster was just four years old when her mum was admitted to hospital and she was taken into temporary care.
After being in and out of care for three difficult years, she met two people who would change her life forever.
Foster carers Angela and Steve Hesford took the then sevenyear-old into their home in Gee Cross, Hyde, where she still lives. Now, she’s a high-achieving 18-year-old with the world at her feet. But Moreya knows things could have been very different.
She said: “It didn’t take long for me to settle in here, it just felt like home straight away and I felt safe and like I’m part of a normal family – with all the normal family ups and downs.
“Being with a loving and stable foster family has made the world of difference to me.
“I think of all the opportunities and support I’ve had that just wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone into care.
“I sometimes pass girls in the street who look as if they are having a hard time and I think that could so easily have been me. I feel so fortunate that I’ve had such brilliant foster carers.”
The teenager had a good childhood with Angela and Steve, going on holidays and attending dance lessons.
She has achieved Grade 8 in ballet and hopes to go to uni after her A Levels.
But Moreya says she couldn’t have done any of it without her foster family’s support and encouragement.
“Angela and Steve don’t just look after me - we have a very close bond and friendship,” she says.
“If one day I have my own children, I want Angela and Steve to be their grandparents and I know they will love them just as they were their own grandchildren.
“I may not have had the best of starts but I’ve had a very good childhood and it’s thanks to my foster carers.”
Angela, 58, and Steve, 61, have been foster carers for two decades, starting soon after their eldest son left home. The couple have since fostered 19 children, mostly in long-term placements like Moreya’s, as well as providing short-term and respite care. They currently look after a 13-year-old girl and foster a seven-year-old girl and a sixmonth-old baby boy. “It’s a full and busy life but I don’t think we would want it any other way,” says Angela. “Whenever a child moves on we think we are going to look forward to a rest, but then that feeling comes over us that we want to help someone else. “We first got into fostering because I already knew someone who was a foster carer and I just felt that it was something I could do well. “There’s something inside me that wants to make a positive difference for these children. “You do get attached – you can’t help but fall for them – and it can be hard when they move on but, when you know they are going to the right place, it’s very Foster parent Angela Hesford rewarding to know you have been part of that positive journey.
“We are still in touch with the vast majority of the children we have cared for and it’s lovely to see them happy and living good lives.
“Not every day in fostering is easy but that’s the same in any family and, as with any family, the good stuff far outweighs it all.
“As for Moreya, we are so very proud of her and everything she is achieving and we feel very privileged to be part of her life.”
Moreya, Angela and Steve are supporting the You Can Foster campaign, which is backed by Tameside Council, to help recruit more foster carers.
Children and young people in care are being encouraged to enter a competition to tell their own stories of life in a foster family.
The competition will be judged by Manchester poet Tony Walsh aka ‘Longfella.’
Tameside Council fostering team want to hear from people of all ages and backgrounds who may be able to provide a stable and caring home. Call 0161 368 8865 or visit www.tameside.gov. uk/fostering for details.