Last month, Jo Newby was bestowed with the honour of the ‘UK’s kindest hero’ in a competition with snack company KIND.
For the past 19 years, she and her husband Christopher have fostered 92 children – adopting one. And that first knock on the door, the very first time they fostered a youngster was a surreal moment, reports the Mirror.
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.
Jo had been entrusted to look after a tiny human that wasn’t hers. But with each child that went on to enter their home, she loved and cared for them as if they were her own.
Jo and Chris, both 52, married when they were 30 and had conversations about having children. Jo already had a son, James, now 32, from her first marriage, so they discussed fostering instead.
They thought they’d try it for a few years. But nearly 19 years later, 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 – instead, carers must be in it out of the kindness of their hearts.
After breaking down her allowance, she has worked out she is paid around 50p per hour. But Jo says waking up each morning and sharing her love with those that need it most is something she felt compelled to do.
Looking back at the first time she fostered, she said: “I had this immediate feeling of ‘this baby needs me.’ It was an overwhelming and surreal process, you can’t quite believe it, but then it becomes really normal.”
When it came to their second, they actually collected the two-day-old baby from the hospital. Jo remembers exchanging a glance with the newborn and thinking she felt love instantly.
Children can stay in the Newby home in the East Riding of Yorkshire for anywhere from an afternoon or up to a few years, as the couple offer short-term care. It can be difficult to say goodbye to children they have cared for and there are some children she finds particularly hard to stop thinking about.
Jo went on: “You can’t genuinely care for someone and then when they go, for them not take a part of you with them. It’s like a bit of your heart goes with them.
“You’ve invested emotionally. It’s real, and it’s coming from your heart.”
One special child that came into their care is able to stay with them for life. Kasper, now 14, was an 18-month-baby when they were instructed to look after him.
Following assessments by the local authority, it was decided he could never be rehabilitated back into his birth home. But officials also determined he wasn’t able to be put up for adoption either, which meant he could have been in and out of foster homes until he was an adult.
When he was five, Jo and Chris fought a legal battle and won, allowing him to be permanently under their care. She explained: “We made a commitment to Kasper and we haven’t come across another child yet where we felt we could make that difference.
“Kasper has a lot of additional needs and deserved permanence – a right to be part of the family legally, a right to inheritance, and a feeling of belonging.”
While copious stringent checks and rigorous training prove the job is a profession, it’s more of a lifestyle for Jo, as she said the foster care allowance she receives from the agency she works at amounts to pennies. She began: “People joke saying ‘you’re well paid’ and when actually, we aren’t paid in any instance.
“If you break it down, 24-hours a day seven days a week, we get something like 50p an hour. That isn’t even our 50p because that money we get is to feed, clothe, travel expenses, and pocket money – all things you’d provide for your birth children.
“The allowance from fostering helps you to provide those things for them. There is no real wage, and you definitely don’t do it for financial gain.”
Her devotion to the children prompted her husband to secretly nominate her for a recognition award after seeing a competition on Facebook with KIND snacks. She won, which saw her hailed as the UK’s kindest hero by the company, and last month, Jo was honoured with a commemorative four-metre tall statue on London’s iconic Southbank.
The foster carer is still in disbelief, considering herself an ‘average Joe’. She explained: “It was all really surreal.
“When Christopher told me that he’d entered me, I was dismissive of him. I thought, ‘no, no, there would be someone much more deserving.
“Then when I saw the unveiling of the statue, seeing this four-metre version of yourself, even then the reality didn’t kick in. I did a giggle and couldn’t believe it was me.”
Jo hopes her story encourages people to realise that small things can make a big difference. Living by Heather Small’s hit Proud – which asks: “What have you done today to make you feel proud?”, Jo added: “Everyone should have that song in their head.
“Every day do something that makes you feel proud; be nice to someone you wouldn’t normally. Be kind to the next person you meet.”
Jo Newby has been named the #MyKindHero following the nationwide search by KIND Snacks to uncover the UK’s Kind Hero. KIND Snacks has launched the commemorative statue to inspire Brits to follow Jo’s lead and commit more acts of kindness – in its bid to build a kinder world.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
Find recommendations for eating out, attractions and events near you here on our sister website 2Chill
Find recommendations for dog owners and more doggy stories on our sister site Teamdogs
