Being a parent can be a real challenge, and for one North Lincolnshire couple the experience spanned three decades. During those 30 years the pair fostered more than 100 children.

Barbara (67) and Charles (73) Davies have been fostering children since the early 1970s. During that time they have provided loving homes for more than 100 needy children. And now, after 30 years of fostering, they have decided to call it a day.

The couple, who live on Bridge Road in Westcliff, began fostering when they lived in Rotherham before moving to Scunthorpe in the mid-1970s. Barbara and Charles were unable to have a family of their own but very much wanted to care for children, so decided to foster.

However, what they did not foresee after making the initial decision to foster was that they would still be doing it 30 years later.

Barbara and Charles both agreed it had been the most rewarding experience imaginable, and neither would hesitate to do it all again.

Barbara said: "We have only stopped fostering now because we have just become too old for it.
"We desperately wanted to have a family of our own, but it just wasn't possible, so we both decided to start fostering children."

Charles said: "We were desperate to have our own family and this seemed like the best way to do it."

It was a joint decision by the couple to start fostering and one which would have a huge effect on the next 30 years of their lives. After fostering a number of children in Rotherham the couple moved to Scunthorpe.

They moved to the town so Charles could take up the position of caretaker in flats in Westcliff. Barbara has never worked outside the family home, where she has always been kept busy by the constant coming and going of foster children.

Charles said: "We have fostered babies and we have also cared for children in their late teens.
"We are still in direct contact with at least 10 different children we have fostered during those 30 years .
"It has been very rewarding to see them grow up and for them to make their own lives, and to see them have their own families."

The most children the couple have fostered at any given time was five, which proved to be very hard but rewarding work. The pair said fostering was very different when they first began in the early 1970s.

Barbara said: "It was much more secretive and once the child left you were not allowed to stay in contact with them in the future, which was very hard.
"However, thankfully, the rules changed allowing you to keep in contact with the children you fostered, which is something we have tried to do with as many children as possible."

She said some of the circumstances in which the children had been brought to them made it very upsetting for everyone.

Barbara added: "We cannot discuss names or individual cases, but some of the reasons why children were coming to us to be fostered was extremely upsetting."

However, the couple still have fond memories of the first ever child they fostered all those years ago.

Barbara said: "The first child we fostered was a young girl who we are not allowed to name, but we still remember her very well.
"The house is just covered with pictures of all the children we have fostered.
"We have to have a picture of each child we have fostered."

Charles said he loved to hear from the children they had fostered to see how they were getting on.

He said: "I recently heard from a lad we fostered who sent us a photo of himself in his army uniform which was wonderful to see."