Miss-Delectable
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http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=789212006
TROUBLED Scots TV presenter Gail Porter has revealed she plans to foster special needs children, and has spoken of how the idea was inspired by her own childhood experiences.
Porter, who has suffered a two-year nightmare of marriage break-up, revelations of anorexia and post-natal depression, and the loss of her hair, said it was now her "dream" to give a home to some of society's most disadvantaged youngsters.
The 35-year-old revealed she and her boyfriend had ruled out having children together and said she would instead follow the example of a foster parent neighbour from her days growing up in Portobello, Edinburgh.
Porter, the subject of a television documentary this week about alopecia, also revealed that the tragic death of a deaf cousin, aged seven, had influenced her decision.
Porter told Scotland on Sunday: "Fostering kids with special needs is my dream. If the woman who lived down the road from me when I was a kid could do it, why can't I?
"These kids weren't easy, throwing tantrums all the time, but she was incredibly patient, and that's my ultimate goal because I love kids."
Porter said she hoped to begin fostering as soon as her divorce from musician Dan Hipgrave was completed.
"I'm still going through my divorce after two years of wrangling, but when I'm financially secure and have some kind of completion in my life, I want to take in one or two foster children with special needs," she said, adding that she had discussed fostering with her boyfriend, cameraman James Lloyd.
"I did say to James, 'Do you fancy a kid?' and he said no, so I thought, 'OK, I understand'. He's got an eight-year-old, Esme, I've got an almost four-year-old. He looks after his daughter, I look after mine, and between the two of us it's quite a lot of responsibility.
"If I knew I was going to be the perfect mum and could just put my feet up and look after another one then, yes, I'd have one, but I can't. I had such a traumatic childbirth. Honey was nine pounds, and I was ill all through the pregnancy.
"That's why I want to foster because I think if I work hard and can get some sort of proper financial backing, I can really turn my dream of fostering into a reality."
Porter said her brother worked with autistic adults and that she had worked with deaf children and special needs youngsters before moving into her career in television.
She said: "My mum always encouraged us to do voluntary work so we've always worked in homes, and with other kids. That's just the way we grew up."
Porter said a childhood tragedy - one which she has not spoken about publicly until now - had also fuelled her desire to foster special needs children. When she was growing up, her deaf cousin, David, died suddenly of measles aged just seven.
"My uncle's son lived with us until he died when he was seven," she said. "My mum's brother, David, has been deaf since birth. He married Mary and they had a baby, also called David.
"But they weren't able to look after David at that time so he lived with us from a baby. He got the measles, my mum took him to the hospital and there was some sort of mix-up in the hospital and David died.
"Of course, anyone dying in your family is going to have a horrific effect on everyone, and he was our little mate and then suddenly he wasn't there. I've still got a picture of him in the house, but I felt more for my uncle. I literally got back from school and was told: 'David's dead.' I thought: 'But I saw him this morning, he had breakfast with us, what's going on?'
"We stuck together and got through it as a family, but I miss him a lot and my mum misses him more than most. We don't talk about it that much because it was very traumatic. It had a big effect on me and is all part of my desire to foster special needs children. I can sign because of David, so I have good communication with deaf people."
About her involvement in Wednesday's film on alopecia, Porter said: "What I've learned about alopecia is that no one can actually say where it comes from, what happens, and how you can treat it.
"They speculate on your thyroids, hormones, stress, or shock, but there are no certainties. Duncan Goodhew got it when he fell out of a tree when he was five, Matt Lucas got it when he was a kid.
"That makes it quite a difficult thing to deal with because you don't know where it's come from or how to treat it. It's like an enigma disease - you have this, no one knows why and no one can help you."
In Scotland, single people are allowed to be foster parents and there is no upper age for fostering. However, fostering agencies expect people to be mature enough to work with the complex problems that children needing fostering are likely to have, and will expect proof that a prospective foster parent can handle the task both physically and mentally.
One Life - Gail Porter Laid Bare, BBC1, is screened on Wednesday at 10.40pm
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=789212006
TROUBLED Scots TV presenter Gail Porter has revealed she plans to foster special needs children, and has spoken of how the idea was inspired by her own childhood experiences.
Porter, who has suffered a two-year nightmare of marriage break-up, revelations of anorexia and post-natal depression, and the loss of her hair, said it was now her "dream" to give a home to some of society's most disadvantaged youngsters.
The 35-year-old revealed she and her boyfriend had ruled out having children together and said she would instead follow the example of a foster parent neighbour from her days growing up in Portobello, Edinburgh.
Porter, the subject of a television documentary this week about alopecia, also revealed that the tragic death of a deaf cousin, aged seven, had influenced her decision.
Porter told Scotland on Sunday: "Fostering kids with special needs is my dream. If the woman who lived down the road from me when I was a kid could do it, why can't I?
"These kids weren't easy, throwing tantrums all the time, but she was incredibly patient, and that's my ultimate goal because I love kids."
Porter said she hoped to begin fostering as soon as her divorce from musician Dan Hipgrave was completed.
"I'm still going through my divorce after two years of wrangling, but when I'm financially secure and have some kind of completion in my life, I want to take in one or two foster children with special needs," she said, adding that she had discussed fostering with her boyfriend, cameraman James Lloyd.
"I did say to James, 'Do you fancy a kid?' and he said no, so I thought, 'OK, I understand'. He's got an eight-year-old, Esme, I've got an almost four-year-old. He looks after his daughter, I look after mine, and between the two of us it's quite a lot of responsibility.
"If I knew I was going to be the perfect mum and could just put my feet up and look after another one then, yes, I'd have one, but I can't. I had such a traumatic childbirth. Honey was nine pounds, and I was ill all through the pregnancy.
"That's why I want to foster because I think if I work hard and can get some sort of proper financial backing, I can really turn my dream of fostering into a reality."
Porter said her brother worked with autistic adults and that she had worked with deaf children and special needs youngsters before moving into her career in television.
She said: "My mum always encouraged us to do voluntary work so we've always worked in homes, and with other kids. That's just the way we grew up."
Porter said a childhood tragedy - one which she has not spoken about publicly until now - had also fuelled her desire to foster special needs children. When she was growing up, her deaf cousin, David, died suddenly of measles aged just seven.
"My uncle's son lived with us until he died when he was seven," she said. "My mum's brother, David, has been deaf since birth. He married Mary and they had a baby, also called David.
"But they weren't able to look after David at that time so he lived with us from a baby. He got the measles, my mum took him to the hospital and there was some sort of mix-up in the hospital and David died.
"Of course, anyone dying in your family is going to have a horrific effect on everyone, and he was our little mate and then suddenly he wasn't there. I've still got a picture of him in the house, but I felt more for my uncle. I literally got back from school and was told: 'David's dead.' I thought: 'But I saw him this morning, he had breakfast with us, what's going on?'
"We stuck together and got through it as a family, but I miss him a lot and my mum misses him more than most. We don't talk about it that much because it was very traumatic. It had a big effect on me and is all part of my desire to foster special needs children. I can sign because of David, so I have good communication with deaf people."
About her involvement in Wednesday's film on alopecia, Porter said: "What I've learned about alopecia is that no one can actually say where it comes from, what happens, and how you can treat it.
"They speculate on your thyroids, hormones, stress, or shock, but there are no certainties. Duncan Goodhew got it when he fell out of a tree when he was five, Matt Lucas got it when he was a kid.
"That makes it quite a difficult thing to deal with because you don't know where it's come from or how to treat it. It's like an enigma disease - you have this, no one knows why and no one can help you."
In Scotland, single people are allowed to be foster parents and there is no upper age for fostering. However, fostering agencies expect people to be mature enough to work with the complex problems that children needing fostering are likely to have, and will expect proof that a prospective foster parent can handle the task both physically and mentally.
One Life - Gail Porter Laid Bare, BBC1, is screened on Wednesday at 10.40pm
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=789212006