Cliff and Irene Sapsford have been fostering so long they recently collected an award from Essex County Council for clocking up 40 years. In that time, they believe they have fostered more than 90 vulnerable children.
They have two grown-up sons and are now grandparents, but Irene confesses they have lost count of the exact amount of children they have fostered.
She says she wanted to foster since being best friends with a girl from Barnardo’s when she was at school: “I don’t know where she is now, but she just stuck in my brain. Some children have so much, and others come to our front door with nothing but the clothes on their backs."