'Proud Foster Carers': How This Elderly Couple Is Bringing Fantastic Change To Children's Lives

Grantham: A couple from Grantham, Lincolnshire took in their first child in 1978. After being married for 58 years, the couple, now in their 80s, have fostered more than 150 children and say they have no plans to retire. The couple was also asked to be godparents of a child they had cared for.

Margaret Isdale and her husband Robert have been given a lifetime achievement award for their decades of fostering efforts. The couple also has two children of their own, and are currently caring for an eight-month-old baby, a report said.

"I don't know! We just enjoy doing it, and I can't imagine not doing it now," Mrs Isdale said.

"It's really quite humbling. It's not about us, it's about the kids we look after - they're the important ones," Mr Isdale, 81, said.

Talking about their experience fostering, he added, "You're there to give them an interim period of safety, to allow them to experience being part of a family."

The first child the couple cared for was a 14-year-old girl, who stayed with them for a week before returning to her birth parents.

The couple have also looked after children with a range of needs. In one instance, they took care of a boy who underwent a kidney transplant. The couple spent weeks in the hospital by his bedside.

"People say, how can you hand them over? Well, that's part of what we do, and sometimes when you hand [a child] over the adoptive parents or birth parents keep in touch and they say how appreciative they are. That in itself is a reward," Mr Isdale said.

Kim, a child born with Down's syndrome, died in 2005 at the age of 21 after travelling all over the world with the couple. The doctors had said that she would not live beyond nine months.

"She taught us a lot. She was lovely, she had a good sense of humour, and she went everywhere with us," Mr Isdale said.

The couple was also recently asked to be the godparents of a girl they had cared for.

The couple said they had no plans to retire from fostering, insisting they would continue caring for children as long as their health permitted them to.

Michelle Sawmynaden, from the Lincolnshire Fostering Service, said she was "in awe" of the couple. "Their dedication to the fostering service over 46 years has been absolutely incredible."

"The difference they've made to the children's lives has been fantastic. Lots of those children have either gone back to their birth families or gone on to be adopted," she added.