Three years of fostering moments, Mel's story

Mel Davies and her husband Mike have been foster carers with Calon Cymru for three years. They have fostered several children throughout this time and have tried various fostering types including short term, long term, Care plus, day care, and respite, with each foster child leaving a lasting impact on the whole family.

Mel and Mike chose to foster because they had always enjoyed spending time with children and seeing them flourish and develop. Mel also had previous experience running a community centre and playschemes, as well as helping in youth centres for teenagers, which equipped her with some of the skills needed to foster. They had also seen first-hand the difference that fostering makes to young lives.

“My son had a friend in foster placement and suggested why don’t we do it as we enjoy spending time with children, we would always have his friends around for tea or go on days out, and we had a spare room. When we thought about it more, we felt we could provide a loving stable home to those that need one. We have lots of love to give and enjoy seeing children achieve their potential and felt we could help support their development.”

Mel loves seeing the difference she makes to a child’s development and supporting each child in their care to build and develop new skills. She has several happy memories from her 3 years, but her favourite fostering moment so far has been helping a child to read and write.

“We have a 9 year old that could not read or write but recently we helped them to achieve this. The child actually cried when they managed to read a book without guessing the words, and they said to us that they never thought this day would ever happen. For us, this was a huge reward.”

Fostering moments can be big or small. Whether it is laughing over silly jokes or reaching milestones, they help to build bonds between carers and foster children, in turn giving our young people a sense of belonging. For Mel and Mike, being foster carers is a hugely rewarding role:

“Opening up your home to give children a safe, loving, fun environment is the most rewarding thing you will see. Don’t delay it, make that phone call and have a chat. As a foster carer you should always be open, be patient, utilise the support available and have lots of fun along the way.”