Lynne Roe already had two young sons when she decided to become a foster carer.

She was a career woman working for a bank in Canary Wharf, London, and juggling bringing up children under five years old with commutes to the city.

It was quite a jump to make – power suits to potty training – but Lynne would tell you it is the best decision she ever made.

She said: “I wanted to do something that made a difference to someone’s life. I thought no one’s gaining anything from anything I do – I’m just going in and punching numbers into a computer.”

Now, eight years later, there is no argument about the positive impact she has had on a number of children’s lives.

In that time, 42-year-old Lynne and her husband Darren have fostered four girls and four boys of ages ranging from a few weeks old to 11 years.

Of those, Lynne has become a permanent foster carer to a set of brothers, now aged seven and nine, after they slotted perfectly into the family dynamic. She said: “We love them to bits.

“They are part of our lives and I think of them as my own children.”

But fostering does not always lead to unbreakable bonds, with kids needing a loving mum and dad.

An inescapable fact is that there is a reason why these children are being fostered in the first place.

And that is, in the majority of cases, they have come from volatile households – domestic violence, drug addiction, a plain lack of care for their welfare.

Many agree that a child’s formative years are crucial in shaping them, and a traumatic upbringing can have a huge impact.

Of those eight children Lynne has taken care of, one child did not stay for long.

He was two years old and, after a short period of time with the family, it became clear they could not meet his needs. She said: “With the behaviour he was expressing, he was not able to be around children or animals.”

Fortunately, Lynne was able to help organise a new foster home for the boy, a place where he would be an only child and his complex requirements could be met.

Shortly after this he was adopted and found the ‘forever home’ so many children crave.

In many cases, fostering will not give a child a ‘forever home’, but, even if it does not lead to something more permanent, it always provides them with something they have generally never known – stability.

Lots of people can become foster carers, with or without children of their own, anyone who is single, young or older, and those who do not own their own home.

A spare room is the only requirement, and maintenance money as well as pay is given to fosterers.

There are a number of fostering information events being held across the county over the next couple of weeks.

For more details, visit www.kentfostering.co.uk or call 03000 420002.