Davina McCall meets kinship carers
Amrit Virdi
Monday, March 18, 2024
TV star Davina McCall, who grew up in kinship care herself, met with kinship carers in a new film to raise money and awareness for Comic Relief.
McCall met with Wendy, Kelly and Meyrem, from Kinship, a charity supported by Comic Relief, to raise awareness about the role of kinship carers. The presenter was looked after by her grandmother from the age of four.
As part of last week’s Red Nose Day coverage, a film has been released documenting the meeting. Money raised by Comic Relief will support Kinship as they help more than 180,000 children in kinship care in the UK.
McCall said: “Getting to know Wendy, Kelly and Meyrem was extremely moving - not only was I able to learn more about their amazing work, but I was able to have conversations that I relate to on a deep level and was able to honour my grandmother who did such a sterling job with me.”
As the film documents, none of the women were aware of the term ‘kinship carer’ before taking responsibility for their kinship child and struggled alone until being directed to Kinship.
Grandmother Wendy said: “I was so used to working full-time to my own schedule, and then I suddenly had a small child who was fully dependent on me and the whole structure of my life changed. I just felt so isolated. For a very long time I really did feel like I was the only grandparent in the world bringing up grandchildren, I knew nobody else. But through Kinship I've met others – not just grandparents – in the same situation as me and I’ve realised I'm not alone in doing this. Kinship has given us our own identity."
Lucy Peake, chief executive of the Kinship, added: “It was wonderful to see Davina meet some of the kinship carers that we support and empower to campaign for the financial, practical and emotional support that families like theirs need. As someone who grew up in kinship care herself, Davina had real insight into the experiences of kinship families and the challenges they have faced. Comic Relief’s support has been transformational in enabling kinship carers to be seen, heard, valued and better supported.”
