Little Big Man

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Wherever I lived, my care experience included libraries and reading, and without them I wouldn’t be here,” says Rosie Canning, who was put into care in London at six weeks. “Books were a way to escape from the madness around me, be that foster care, family, or residential homes. Libraries were my hallowed space, and librarians were kind guardians who gave me orphan tales.” Now, as part of her PhD, Canning is writing her own novel, entitled Hiraeth, about a 16-year-old orphan leaving a children’s home in the mid-1970s. Meera Mistry It destroys you as a person, the amount of anxiety you develop from always expecting something to go wrong in your life,” says Tarell Mcintosh, who became homeless after two local authorities in south London failed to properly care for him. Mcintosh managed to make it to university and now runs a Caribbean restaurant, Sugarcane London, in Wandsworth, but he remains scarred by his experiences. “You just get used to battling with everybody all the time, and you always have your guard up. It’s really horrible.” Siroun Button I would say definitely invest in a ghost writer! Just to help get you started or at the very least help you to put a proposal together. There is a format the industry recognises, so it makes sense to start on the right foot, see it as an investment in yourself. Once you understand the logistics of how to go about things, then the rest will flow. An intelligent and sensitive child, Browne’s narrative saw him descend into crime, heroin addiction and gang life. 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.

Some of his TV appearances include the 2016 Sky Vision production of "Killers: Behind the Myth" in which Stanley played the role of Tracy Burleson. In the same year, he played Taxi Driver Joe in the comedy series "Twisted Tales" a Chanel 4 production. In 2018, Stanley played William Walker in the Sky series called "Someone You Thought You Knew". Jenny Bagchi spent time in foster care and unregulated settings as a teenager before experiencing an abrupt end to care at 16. Becoming a young parent motivated her to return to education as an adult. She is now employed by the NHS in Greater Manchester, leading a programme to create trauma responsive communities and organisations and to improve health outcomes and opportunities across the region. She is also a trustee of the charity Pure Insight, which supports young people to have a better care-leaving experience than she did herself. Derek Owusu Why do you think this book is significantforaudiences to read? What do you hope people will take from it?

Evlyne Oyedokun

An intelligent and sensitive child, Stanley descends into a life of crime and drug abuse. During his time spent in various young offender's institutions and prisons he battles with addiction and slowly begins to turn his life around. Best known for designing clothes for Diana, Princess of Wales, Bruce Oldfield was born in Durham and fostered at 18 months by a seamstress, Violet Masters, who taught him how to sew. From 13, he lived at a Barnardo’s care home in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Chris Fretwell

My own interests and experiences also weave into my stories so that readers can get an insight into my South Asian heritage, as you can see from this story about Karak Chai which I'm ever so passionate about!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. This is a great opportunity to celebrate our achievements,” says Keith Saha of the Foundling Museum project. “A lot of care-experienced people will also measure success by how we’re feeling internally, how we manage our mental health and wellbeing, and not always what we’re achieving externally.” Moved into a children’s home aged six, Saha then went to live with adoptive parents in Merseyside the following year – a complex but positive experience for which he feels “lots of gratitude”. Now he works as a theatre-maker working with young and emerging artists, many of whom are also care-experienced. Barrie Sharpe Eventually by the age of 23, Stanley decided to turn his life around. After facing addiction, he was introduced to recovery through a friend at a point where he wanted to end his life. He also ended up receiving a lot of therapy and counselling, and when he finally got better he decided to pursue another path.

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 Sonny and Christine want to escape. They have a night to remember but underneath the surface things aren’t what they seem. Cyrus is frantically trying to piece together the truth about that night. Unexpectedly a tragedy is about to unite them all… 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 just felt I had to hide it,” says Sophie Willan, creator and star of Alma’s Not Normal, of her experience in care – she spent much of her childhood in foster care in Bolton. “It was actually seeing Lemn [Sissay] perform that helped me realise that you could talk about it. He really put it on the map and allowed it to be something that we could be proud of as an identity and talk about as a political thing. So it didn’t just have to be: this is your problem. It could be: this is everybody’s problem.” Luke Wright The view of care leavers is typically: unable to achieve a higher education, expected to fail in life,” says Michelle Brown, who went into care at 11 and was “hugely let down” by her local authorities – she was left on the streets aged 15 after one of her foster carers relocated. “Many of us who stood at the Foundling Museum have had to battle our way through systemic failures and discrimination. Today we stand proud as care leavers and remove society’s stigma.” Brown defied expectations by progressing to university and getting a Masters. She is now a psychodynamic psychotherapist and the director of two companies. Nze Kriss Kezie Akabusi MBE

Tanya Joelle Stephenson

Actor Stanley J. Browne sheds vital light on addiction, mental illness, and our underfunded care system in this powerful true-to-life story about male coming-of-age. In 1963 Browne produced a "Report of a Study Tour of Leprosy Research Centres in India and the East". He mentions visiting Buluba Leprosarium (30 miles from Jinja), where there were 23,000 registered leprosy cases. Browne, Derek. ‘Centenary Year of Dr Stanley Browne’. Leprosy Mailing List Blog. 23 May 2008. Online. Gibson, Mary E. “Browne, Stanley George (1907–1986).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by HCG Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online (accessed September 13, 2006). It was only when he was sent to a young offender’s institution that he slowly began to turn his life around.