YOU ARE VIEWING ARTICLE - ID:20120511037

Dear Sir,

I wondered whether my new book ‘Cherry Blossom Children – One Foster Parents Story’ might be of interest to you for an article in the Doncaster Villager. The book was published on 20th March 2012.

Born and Bred in Cleethorpes, I left the area to move to Sheffield to follow a career in Nursing. My nurse training took place at the United Sheffield School of Nursing; I was a Royal Infirmary Nurse in the 70’s. During the latter part of the 70’s I married my husband, though not a local man, we met in Grimsby through his family. However our work took us away from the area and we finally settled in West Yorkshire where we raised not only our own children but also invested a great deal of time in fostering family groups. All of our children were to have their eyes opened to the delights of their Yorkshire heritage as we spent many endless hours exploring the Dales and Moors and visiting our towns and cities for their museums, theatres and events providing them with greater insight into their County Though we are no longer in a position to continue fostering I felt it was essential to raise the profile of fostering by showing that commitment and determination can help to change lives as well as bringing it’s own enormous rewards. Hence the resulting book, which I hope will encourage others to focus on this need too.

I was inspired as a child in Cleethorpes to consider fostering as an option as a direct result of my own personal experiences from the surrounding area of my home town However, during my nurse training in Sheffield, I also worked for a short time at the Children’s Hospital where I met a rather special little boy who died at the age of seven who inspired me to continue working towards my goal to fostering children and more recently to writing the book.

In order to protect the identities of the children I have cared for I had to write under a pseudonym, especially as we eventually adopted some of the children. I would appreciate that this is respected.

The book ISBN is 9781781487549 available on-line through Amazon, W H Smith, Waterstones, Bertrams and Gardners but can also be obtained through any bookstore.
It is also available as an eBook with the ISBN 9781781480694.
Thank you for your time given and hope you can help me to raise the profile of fostering and adoption.

Kind Regards
Dani Valdis

Hover over each picture for a description, or click to load larger image.