FOSTER mum Annabelle Avis is determined to dispel the myth among LGBT+ people that they can’t do what she’s been doing for the past seven years. .

The 39-year-old, who fosters with her wife Sally, 54, featured on the UK’s first LGBT+ parenting podcast series Some Families.

“We both feel that a lot of the LBGT+ community think they can’t foster,” she said. “But they can and that’s one of the myths we want to break down. Anybody can be a foster carer. You just have to be over 21, have a spare room and obviously some life experience helps.”

The couple have cared for 10 young people since they started working with Five Rivers Child Care. The independent provider and social enterprise approached Annabelle to feature on the podcast which wanted to remove some of the misinformation about fostering.

She and Sally have never encountered any opposition when being considered as carers.

“We’ve actually had the opposite,” Annabelle said. “We’ve had situations where we’ve been put forward against a male and female couple and we’ve come out on top.”

“A child who didn’t want to live with a man ended up living with us. So it’s benefited us more than hindered us, if you like.”

“The other myth that we’ve been talking about is that people feel that in fostering there’s a lot of bad things and a lot of negative stories. And although there are a lot of challenges, there are actually really good matches.”

The couple, who have been married for seven years, are long-term foster carers to three children, two of whom they are planning to adopt later this year.

Annabelle said: “We’ve got a really good match for our family – we’ve got three children staying with us long term. People don’t like the word ‘normal’, but we’ve got a normal family unit. We want people to know they can have that. It doesn’t always have to be as challenging and as negative as people think.

“We already feel like a family until but going through the adoption with the two smaller ones is just going to cement that for us. It will be a really nice experience.”

Encouraging members of the LGBT+ community to get involved, Annabelle said: “It’s just really rewarding. Everyone knows there are challenges which we deal with on a day to day basis, but it’s so rewarding when you see the children start to settle and to shine, and then the real true them comes out.

“Just go for it. It’s a leap of faith, do it and you won’t regret it,” she said.

One of the challenges is caring for children who will be going back home while also looking after those who can’t.

“We’ve had children coming and going alongside children staying in our care long term.Trying to explain the difference between those situations, to me that’s the hardest challenge - trying to explain why one child can’t go home but another child can.”

For more information about fostering with Five Rivers go to five-rivers.org