No ordinary MUM

As Mother's Day approaches, three women share their very different routes to motherhood

- ALICE GREBOT

'I'VE FOSTERED MORE THAN 200 CHILDREN'

Author Maggie Hartley has written 24 books about her experiences as a foster carer. She has one grown-up biological son.

I've always loved working with children.

My passion for it started when I was 16 and volunteered at a holiday playscheme for children with disabilities, many of whom had autism. One day, I saw a young boy who was sobbing and distressed. He didn't speak English, but I watched, amazed, as another volunteer calmed him down just with her expressions, gestures and touch.

It had a pivotal effect on me - I knew then that I wanted a career that helped children.

In my early 20s, I began working at a residential care home, before becoming a house mother at a school for children with behavioural and emotional issues, where I looked after eight children,

day and night. It was this role that led me to become a foster carer. I had the right experience and I wanted to support the children that other people had perhaps given up on.

Special relationship I was single and in my mid-20s when I began. I applied to the local authority and had a rigorous assessment to check my suitability to be a foster carer, before I was interviewed by a panel of social workers and lay people. I was overjoyed when my application was approved.

My first foster child was a 17-yearold girl, and her newborn baby. I was delighted but also worried - what if she didn't like me, or my house? I needn't have worried. As I was quite young myself, she felt at ease with me and we soon developed a good relationship.

She arrived scared and uncertain, and was incredibly nervous around her baby.

During the two years she was with me, I worked with her to build her confidence.

She left with a house of her own to go to, excited about her future. It was very special to be part of her new beginning, and I still speak to her to this day.