A kindhearted Clifton couple who have fostered more than 200 children are helping to lead a campaign to get more people to follow in their footsteps.
Will Cotterrill, 61, and his wife Sue, 60, have fostered children for more than 30 years and currently have a 16-year-old girl, who they’ve looked after for eight years, and a ten-month-old baby.
Sue grew up with friends who grew up in care and decided she wanted to foster after her marriage to help young people – but initially, Will, a former miner and caretaker, was not keen.
But his wife talked him into attending foster care meetings and Will became hooked on the idea. The couple trained to become foster parents after their marriage, along with looking after their three biological children.
The couple agreed to speak out as part of a bid to get more people in Nottingham to foster, to help find loving homes for some of the 600 children in care in the city.
Will said it’s ‘fulfilling’ to help young children and give babies good starts in life, and the baby they are looking after will move on to younger foster parents next month.
The children the couple are looking after for cannot be named or photographed for legal reasons.
Will said: “There’s nothing more fulfilling than helping someone. We want to make little babies happy and give them families and then make other couples happy who can’t have children, to have a gorgeous little baby who we’ve helped.
“We’ve given the little girl one of the best starts she could have. There’s a lot of people who want to foster but say they haven’t got round to doing it. Get round to doing it.”
There are 600 children and young people in care in Nottingham, and Will spoke out to back a national campaign called ‘Foster Care Fortnight’ – which started this week – designed to get more people involved in fostering.
Nottingham City Council is looking for more foster carers to care for children and young people who need support either for a few days, a few months – or to give them stable backgrounds going into adulthood.
Will added: “The baby we’ve got at the moment is the most beautiful, cutest looking-baby. She will be moving on next month. When she moves on that will kill us.
“When you fetch a baby from hospital, it’s almost like your own. We love all the babies, you have to love all the babies. You can’t do it if you don’t love them.
“They become the centre of your life, very much like your own children.”
He added: “The wife and I always thought our talents were with looking after the older children. We went through a period of time, when social services changed, when they were needing people to look after teenagers – and we looked after those and children who were extremely difficult.
“It came to about five years ago and we gave it a go [looking after new-born babies]. We fell in love with the first one we had.”
More information about fostering can be found on the council’s website or by calling 0115 876 3335.
There will also be a fostering information evening on Wednesday, May 10, at Loxley House, Station Street.
