CLIMBING the career ladder meant Christine Aucott and husband Innes hadn't really thought about raising a family.

But when the desire to help children became too strong, they both decided to give up their nine-to-five lives to become full-time foster parents.

"Initially neither of us were worried about having a family of our own because we were career minded," says 41-year-old Christine, who lives in Stafford.

"I was working as a building society manager and Innes was working as a retail manager in a phone shop, so it wasn't something that was on the cards so to speak.

"At the same time, we both wanted an input into children's lives. I used to run a Beaver group, so I've always been involved with children, and we decided to look into fostering as a way of doing this."

Picking up a leaflet in the shopping centre where Innes worked meant the couple were able to learn more about fostering. and the process of becoming foster parents.

Six years on, they have successfully fostered seven children, aged six to 16, for anything from a few months to two years, and have recently celebrated the birth of their own son, Connor, two months ago.

"It took about 12 months from our initial interview to actually being approved as foster parents, but once we were approved we had our first child within two or three weeks," explains Christine, who currently fosters an 11-year-old boy.

"It's not a case of getting just any child, because they make sure they match the child to your environment.

"But no matter who you have, something positive always comes out of it," she adds, "whether it's a child who just needs time out, or a child who has been removed from their family for various reasons, fostering gives them the chance to move onto the next level. It is difficult when they leave, but we've been lucky because we're still in contact with them."

Giving up their jobs to fulfil this challenging role is something neither Christine nor Innes regrets.

Innes adds: "Without doubt it's the best decision we have made.

"It's a funny job because sometimes it's the easiest when everything is going well, but when it goes bad it can become the worst because you have all the emotional ties without any of the power."