I’ve been mum to over 400 children
In celebration of Foster Care Fortnight, super mum Sue Price tells of the highs and lows of 50 years spent fostering
Even though 50 years have passed, Sue Price still recalls how she felt the day her first foster children, two little girls, arrived on her doorstep in December 1974.
She and husband George, then in their 20s and yet to have their own children, couldn’t wait to meet the sisters who would become family.
“I was nervous, but mostly excited. Fostering was in my blood – I’d grown up with my mum doing it – so even though I was only 23 I never found the idea daunting. I just wanted to give those children all the care I could.”
The girls, aged three and five, two of six siblings whose birth mother had died, stayed with Sue and George until they were 19 and 20.
The day they arrived, three weeks before Christmas half a century ago, was just the beginning. Since then, Sue and George, who sadly suffered from vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease and passed away five years ago, have cared for an incredible 416 babies and children.
After George’s death, Sue, 73, carried on fostering.
“In the later stages, and after he died, the babies took my mind off things,” she reflects. “I just put everything into the kids.”
Karen Walley at Foster4 ( foster4. co.uk) says: “Being a foster carer is about caring for children in your home while problems in theirs are sorted out and/or alternative future plans for them are made.
“The main objective is to offer a stable and nurturing environment which keeps them safe, promoting the importance of education, health and hobbies to help development.
“Foster carers attend training and meetings to share their knowledge and experiences so they can advocate for children in their care. They may also help a child maintain contact with family.”
ADOPTION
Sue has three biological children of her own, and one adopted son.
“They’re all good boys,” she says. “They’ve grown up with me fostering and got on with all the children. They always treated them as part of our family. At Christmas they’d all get the same amount of presents.”
Georgie, 46, Gareth, 42, and Kieran, 36, live within a mile of their mum in Liverpool. Bryn, 22, still lives at home, and was adopted by Sue and George as a baby.
He arrived aged just six hours, direct from Liverpool Women’s Hospital, and the couple never wanted him to leave.
“People always ask me, why Bryn?” says Sue. “We’d never adopted before and we were in our 50s. I honestly don’t know - it was just a gut feeling we had straight away.
“We had his two sisters already and then he was born.
“After a while, his sisters went to live with their nan but she couldn’t handle any more, so we adopted Bryn.
“He came straight from the hospital in a little red babygrow with a fire engine on. I’ve still got it.”
Sue and George, a sheet metal worker who became a milkman, fostered children of all ages at first. The eldest was 12, one of four brothers and sisters who arrived in emergency circumstances one Christmas Eve.
“We already had two foster children at home and I had a phone call asking if I could take another four, a 12-yearold, twins aged four, and an 18-month-old baby.
“It was desperate because the mum had gone into labour and wanted to see where they were going.
“Of course, we said yes. It wasn’t the first time I’d had to run out and buy a load of presents on Christmas Eve.
“They arrived in a taxi with the mum in labour. George had to drive her to the hospital – he was terrified he’d have to deliver the baby on the way.”
But the past 30 years have been focused on fostering babies. Although all circumstances are different, many come from mothers with drug or alcohol addictions.
“I’ve had a lot of babies affected by addictions and for me it’s one of the toughest things about fostering. “The newborns go through withdrawal so I have a sheet and I wrap them up tightly, but they scream terribly. It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before in a baby, and they shake.
“It can be distressing to watch but I’ve managed to get them through it.
“They’re very hungry too so you’re giving them a bottle every hour until they stop withdrawing, all through the night. I had one little girl who took three months. I’d doze when she was sleeping, that was all, but I just got used to it. You’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
Most babies go on to be adopted, with Sue helping to ease the transition.
And to Sue’s delight, many return to visit as grown-ups. One boy, who was adopted as a baby and is now 16, visits every year on Sue’s birthday. At Christmas, the house is overflowing with flowers and cards.
Indeed, the love certainly doesn’t end when the children move on to their new lives.
REWARDING
“I do get emotional when they leave, it feels like a bereavement because you naturally get attached. But I don’t have chance to grieve because if they go in the morning, I could get a phone call at night to take another baby and it starts all over again,” says Sue.
“I just try to give each one a really good start in life, and stability and a sense of security they might not have had before.”
She’s learned so much in 50 years. “I’ve learnt to be patient and not to judge. I don’t treat someone on drugs or drink any differently to any other person, that’s not my job. My job is the kids, to make their lives better,” says Sue.
“We badly need more foster carers. It’s so rewarding. There can be difficult times but there’s lots of happiness and laughter too.”
Sue is awaiting a hip operation and, for the first time in five decades, has considered retiring from fostering.
“But I can’t see myself doing anything else. I’ve had 416 children in my care and I’ve loved every one of them.
“My life would have been so different if I hadn’t decided to do this at 23, and I probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near as happy. Whatever I’ve given them, they’ve given me more.”
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My kids have grown up with it and have always got on with all the children
■Foster Care Fortnight 2024 runs until May 26. For information about fostering, visit thefosteringnetwork. org.uk