 Jo and Chris, both 52, married when they were 30 and had conversations about having children. With Jo already having a son, James, now 32, from her first marriage, they discussed fostering instead. They knew a few people who had done it and thought they'd try it for a few years. But almost 19 years and 92 children later, one of which they adopted, there's no sign of them slowing down. Selfless Jo, who fosters children full-time while Chris works from home as a civil servant, always knew she wanted a big family and felt she had a maternal instinct to nurture. She says fostering is not a job you can be in for the money - and instead, carers must be in it out of the kindness of their hearts - as after breaking down her allowance, has worked out she is paid around 50p per hour. But Jo, who was recently hailed as the 'UK's kindest){kind=link}
Jo Newby, who was ‘born to be a mum’, says fostering is a lifestyle and not just a job as John Lewis’ Christmas advert raises awareness of the thousands of children in care in the UK
John Lewis’ Christmas adverts never fail to evoke emotion – and this year’s had a serious message behind it with the retailer partnering with children’s charities. It follows a man’s determination to learn how to skateboard in time for the arrival of Ellie.
The young girl is depicted as one of the 108,000 children in the UK that are in the care system, with the closing scene showing a poignant moment of the couple answering the door to the social worker and welcoming the teenager, whose eyes light up at the sight of the skateboard, into their home.
For foster carer Jo Newby and her husband Christopher, that first knock on the door for the first time they fostered a child was a surreal moment. It was 2004 and the social worker handed over a three-month-old baby in a car seat.
The paperwork was signed and that was it. Jo had been entrusted to look after a tiny human that wasn’t hers – but with each foster child that went on to enter their home, she loved and cared for them as if they were her own.