Little Big Man

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A decade ago, Clare Gorham was “very much pro” transracial adoption. “I would have said that the only thing a child needs is love,” she says, reflecting on her own experience of being happily adopted by her white family in Wimbledon in 1966. “Now my mindset is slightly different. I still think love is the most important thing. But it’s a bit of a B-movie of an existence. My parents were amazing, but their colour-blind approach wasn’t representative of society’s view of me.” Sylvan Baker To embrace the warrior and the humility side of ourselves that is within us all. Learning to love you for who are and not what others perception of you is or what they may want you to be. It’s so important to celebrate the successes,” says Axa Hynes of the photoshoot at the Foundling Museum, “but because there were so many hurdles it can also feel uncomfortable, a distraction from the deep, systemic societal change that has to happen.” Hynes went into care aged 10, fostered by a family friend who had already been giving her family emotional and practical support. “By isolating and highlighting the success of care-experienced people it can become voyeuristic and soothes decision-makers into thinking that meritocracy is real. Instead of celebrating success ‘despite the odds’, we urgently need to improve the odds.” Sanna Mahmood

This year I became a finalist for the British Muslim Awards in the Media Achiever of the Year category - and I hope to make a difference every single year with my work. Stanley J. Browne: The process was cathartic in many ways, yet, really over whelming at times. To revisit old traumas took a lot of courage. I had to challenge and push myself to dig deep and reconnect with those old feelings to be able to put the reader in my shoes. Trust me, there were times my vision was so obscured trying to see through the tears, but I just kept on writing with a roll of kitchen paper towels close beside me! Stanley J. Browne: This memoir touches on many topics that are significant in today’s society mental health, depression, addiction, incarceration, racism, loneliness, recovery, redemption and belonging. Born in Wigan to an Ethiopian mother, Lemn Sissay was placed in foster care as a baby, and sent aged 12 to the first of a series of children’s homes. Later, while piecing together his origins, he discovered that his mother had pleaded for his return and been denied by social services. Sissay has spoken out about his care experience and its many traumas throughout his career as a poet and broadcaster. Allan Jenkins

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Because her care experience happened so early – she was in and out of a foster home in east London until the age of five – Siroun Button never really thought of herself as somebody who’d been in care. “Now I’m starting to realise that it did really have an impact on me,” she says. To help others like her, Button has co-founded calling4gr8ness.org, a programme supporting care-experienced young adults in the creative industries. Lennox Cato DL Graeae is a world renowned innovator in theatre and its productions place creative access at their heart. This play will feature a creative use of captioning and will have audio description on offer at every performance (ask the Box Office for details). The stories I'm most proud of are ones where I can get an insight into the experiences of individuals, such as this powerful independent woman who fled Eritrea and ended up opening her own salon in Brixton. Donna Ludford applied to become lord mayor of the City of Manchester “to raise aspirations for young people in the care system”. She had a deeply unsettled childhood, moving between foster families and children’s homes from the age of six months, after her parents were badly injured in a motorcycle accident. Ludford began as a cleaner at Manchester city council before working her way up, earlier this year, to lord mayor. But success is “not about being the lord mayor,” she told a group of care leavers recently. “It’s about thriving in life and doing what makes you happy.” Zarina Bhimji I also love supporting ethnic minority owned businesses and finding out about owners' own experiences and inspirations behind their menus, for example the story of this Chinese bakery.

Why do you think this book is significantforaudiences to read? What do you hope people will take from it? The issues around growing up in care don’t magically stop at 25, just because public policy stops,” says Jim Goddard, who went into care in Liverpool aged three. “They carry on, and people deal with them in various ways.” Goddard is the chair of the Care Leavers’ Association, which focuses on care leavers of all ages – it might help people access their care files, or deal with issues around social isolation. “The level of invisibility of the issues facing young people leaving care has not fundamentally altered in the past 20 years.” Akiya Henry I remember the photographer who turned up at my mothers house that day, a complete stranger to me who didn't belong in our house," Stanley recalls. "He'd been brought over to take some pictures of my mum, but suggested at the end of the shoot to do a couple of us kids standing together... I felt extra protective over my sisters then." I was fostered till the age of one and then placed with my adoptive family,” says Annalisa Toccara. “Through my lived experience of being adopted, I co-founded a mental-health organisation called Adoptee Futures, which is led by adoptees and which centres adoptees. We look at reclaiming the adoption narrative and reframing the world’s view on adoption, and also helping adult adoptees heal from their trauma.” Louise Wallwein MBE My care experience was lifesaving,” says Antiques Roadshow expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan, who recently published a memoir called Would It Surprise You to Know ?. “My home situation was dire. My mother had schizophrenia, I had a stepfather who was very violent to my mother and to me. I wanted to be in care to get out of that situation.” His experience in children’s homes and foster families between Surrey and Lancashire was “excellent. I felt incredibly cared for and looked after.” Paolo Hewitt

Stanley J. Browne

It was only when he was sent to a young offender’s institution that he slowly began to turn his life around. He said: "We were in a Children's home with other white people, so when you walk in it's a different smell, the food is different, washing powder is different, sheets smell different, your whole world changes. They want to help me and my siblings of course, but when you're torn from your family you just think these strange people have taken us away from my mum. Acting had always been a part of Stanley's school life, he would often take part in productions and impress teachers and parents. "Years later when I pulled myself together I went to Anna Schers theatre in Islington which was for inner city kids who couldn't afford to go to mainstream drama schools. I got an agent and started working, but surprise surprise I got roles playing the thief or robber.

Browne was born in London in 1907. He was awarded two scholarships, which covered his education in medicine and theology at Kings College, London. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1934, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons the following year. After completing an additional qualification in tropical medicine, he was recruited by the Baptist Missionary Society to work as a medical missionary in what was then the Belgian Congo. Natalie Hirst spent eight years living in foster care in Greater Manchester and had a mixed experience, but her resilience helped her to develop the strength and skills to overcome many challenges. “My experience has taught me the importance of having kind, supportive adults in the lives of children in care to help them feel safe, cared for and treated like one of the family,” she says. “These experiences have shaped who I am today, an independent woman, passionate about my career and working with local authorities in Greater Manchester to ensure every young person has a voice, choice and control over decisions made about them.” Michelle BrownWhen he was four, Kriss Akabusi’s parents returned to Nigeria, leaving him alone in the UK with his younger brother. They moved between several foster placements before entering a children’s home. Akabusi joined the British army aged 16 and later embarked on a glittering athletics career as a sprinter and hurdler. Ben Ashcroft FRSA Yes, I got the support I needed around editing because I worked with a ghostwriter, however, towards the end there were a lot of calls I had to make myself as an author because it is my story. I had to decide what I think should or shouldn’t stay in the book. It has been a massive learning process and I have remained open-minded throughout to changes and editing that I may or may not have agreed with.