National fostering award

A 12-year-old from Cheshire East has received a prestigious national award for the outstanding support and compassion she has shown to her foster sister.

Elle Mae was presented with the 'outstanding contribution by sons and daughters award' in the annual Fostering Excellence Awards in this week.

Her award celebrates sons, daughters or siblings who have gone the extra mile to support their parents and the children and young people in foster care with their family.

When her parents fostered a little girl with significant disabilities, including visual impairment, Elle Mae welcomed her. Believing that her foster sister deserved a second chance, she taught her to ride a bike and helped her with swimming lessons.

The pair formed an amazing bond and Elle Mae even learned basic Braille so that she could help her foster sister with school work. She also made an audio photo album and a memory box full of tactile things so that her foster sister could feel them and remember the special things that she loved to do.

The nomination for the award praised Elle Mae for being a 'compassionate and generous' foster sister.

Elle Mae's mother, Joanne, said: "We are extremely proud of Elle Mae. She is such a caring and compassionate girl and willing to help all the children in our care."

Councillor Liz Durham, Cheshire East's Cabinet member for children and families, said: "We are all so proud of Elle Mae's achievement in winning this national award from the Fostering Network. It is vitally important that sons and daughters of our foster carers get the recognition and support that they deserve in welcoming foster children into their families. I wish Elle Mae and her family every success in the future."

Fostering Network chief executive Kevin Williams said: "The children of foster carers can have a huge and positive contribution to how a child can settle into a new home. It's a challenging situation the sons and daughters of foster carers to be in but Elle Mae has a huge heart and has taken it all in her stride."

Cheshire East currently has 30 children and young people awaiting foster placements.

Cheshire East Council is one of 23 local authorities backing the region-wide #youcanfoster campaign, which aims to address the North West's fostering goals and highlight the need for more than 700 new fostering households.

For more information on fostering in Cheshire East, call the fostering team on 0300 123 3223 or visit www.youcanfoster.org/cheshire-east

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