This woman on DIY SOS deserves a sainthood as well as an extension!

[vigglewiggle]

I am properly welling-up! She is the best friend you could ever wish for, her selflessness is astounding. Good luck to her!

I completely agree-I'm totally in awe of her. What an amazing role model for those children

The fact that she doesn't get any help from the state is appalling.

I have just switched it on!! Tell me!

Her best friend was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Shortly afterwards her best friend's DH unexpectedly died from a brain haemorrhage. Her friend then died leaving her 5 children. This saintly woman honoured her friends request to care for her children alongside her own 4 children! She has adopted them rather than fostering and so receives no state help. It also appears that she is a lone parent! Words are not enough!

Nine children in total! Omg, saintly!

lovely family, amazing woman

Only 8 children

amazing woman and such lovely children

I'm welling up too. The three older boys are lovely. Esp when they were asked about how it was taking in the other 5

This had me proper crying. What an amazing woman and what lovely kids.

1 bathroom.... Eeeeeeek 9 kids and 1 bathroom. Crikes.

I thought there were 8 kids

But anyway they had 3 bathrooms

Amazing lady!

They only had 1 bathroom when they started... Didn't they??? Or was Nick-dyed-hair-Knowles tweaking the violin strings?

Yes they did, 1 bathroom and the mum had a loo in her cupboard I think.

There's the original Daily fail story here I think a lot of people read it and contacted DIY SOS as a result. NN said they'd received hundreds of applications from all over the country

It's disgusting that because she adopted these children ... i.e. the state presumably sees the situation as her "choice", she received no help. If she'd been unwilling to do this, they would have had to go into care, potentially split up and would have cost the state far far more over a lifetime than helping the woman with the extra space desperately needed. Then again, I guess you can apply that maxim to most carers' situations where they save the state thousands every year.

I'm full of admiration for her and I'm pleased they'll now have a decent standard of living but this story really highlights how utterly short sighted and uncaring the state can be.

My DM was telling me about this, I usually watch DIY SoS (and cry buckets at every one!) but haven't seen this one yet so am looking forward to seeing it on iPlayer.