A sudden phone call one day in February 2014 would change the course of one foster carer’s life forever.
Already a busy mum-of-three, Jackie Penton, 56, from West Didsbury, was also a full-time carer for her ex-partner who had been unwell for some time. Frequently, she travelled back and forth to Openshaw to look after him.
After her brother, who had two girls and five boys, was unable to care for his children, social workers called to ask if Jackie could take in some of her nieces and nephews who had nowhere to go.
Without hesitation, she agreed. Her daughter was expecting her first child and had been planning to move out, whilst her other two children had already flown the nest.
Jackie, an ex-nursing home carer, says she now had two spare rooms and took in three of her brother’s kids and the others went to live with her sister, who in end the struggled to cope with the children who ranged from 3-14 years old.
By the end of the first year after their dad’s sudden death, one of children was looked after by a recruited carer and another went to live with a family friend.
Jackie says she became a kinship carer for four of her nieces and nephews but still looked after her other family members who would “come and go” over the years.
Jackie, who had always put others first, saw her life change drastically overnight but credits her beginning her training with the Council in foster caring when that dreaded phone call first occurred, which gave her the knowledge needed to transition from kinship carer to foster carer almost seamlessly.
To go from preparing to welcome her first grandchild to being “back on the school run” with her nieces and nephews was a huge change, but Jackie says they just got on with it together. After speaking with her two children about it, they simply told her: “You’ve got to do it mum”.
Now in a new home and settling in with a new routine, the children still had to deal with negative comments from school about their circumstances, which prompted Jackie to move them to a new school in West Didsbury from Wythenshawe.
It was then when the children really began to thrive and their new family life became their new normal when Jackie thought “things would sort itself out” and she would have them temporarily.
But Jackie says she got on with it. They would go for meals out, bowling, cinema and even holidays to Blackpool and Butlins with about 20 family members in total.
Just this year, Jackie says she was “shocked” to find out she had been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award for her unwavering dedication to being a foster carer and her selfless determination to care for others beyond even herself.
She was described as an “exceptional” carer by the city council at the Foster Carer Awards and is an active member of the fostering community, regularly participating in events and training sessions. Her foster children simply told her she had received the award ages ago.
It’s been over a decade since Jackie first became a foster carer overnight. Now a proud grandmother-of-four, life has changed even more. Her brother passed away three years ago but she says she and the nieces and nephews she took in as her own are “still close as ever”.
With many of them having now moved out, Jackie still isn’t done and continues to look after two of the children she helped raise. Jackie, who’s dedicated her life to caring for others, says they’ve made her a better person.
Jackie Penton, a dedicated foster carer, said: “Looking after the children has brought out a confidence in me and resilience, because of how I’ve had to support them. I was fortunate to have been undergoing training which enabled me to gradually become a fully-fledged foster carer while living with me.
“They are thriving and I’m so proud of who they have become. It’s tough and you must do a lot of work on yourself to show up for the children, but it’s worth every second – they’ve made me a better person.”
