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Hello, I'm Amy from Messy Fostering, bringing you a special podcast of our listener-guest

edit of the Today program.

Throughout this podcast, you'll be hearing from me.

I was fostered at 14.

You'll also hear from my foster mum Jid and my teacher Joe, who I stayed with during the

holidays and respite care.

For our program, we want to explore the highs and lows and everything in between of fostering

and how sometimes it can be quite messy.

You'll also hear from careleavers like me, from the Purton broadcaster Lem Cise,

from a project in the northeast with a new approach to fostering and from the children's minister.

To start, here's our messy fostering story.

I grew up as a young carer for my mum and that was all I ever remember growing up.

I helped her with her medication.

I went to doctor's appointments with her and when I was 12 she passed away.

I stayed with family and that broke down, then was taken to come and stay with Jidge and Charlie.

I'm Amy. I have been with my foster family for eight years and want to share our story.

I'm here with my two PAs, Jid and Joe. They're here to get me through life.

So hi, I'm Jij. I'm Jij. I'm Amy's foster mum. I'm Joe. I was the teacher with responsibility for looked after children at Amy's school and eventually became her respite carer.

And we're going to talk about our fostering story and we've called it messy fostering because it was a little bit messy along the way. And we're happy to talk about mess.

Mess is good. There's nothing wrong with a bit of mess. You said, I think we probably all say this, that if Joe hadn't been involved in your life, that it might have broken down.

I had grown up always having control because I had to

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