A COUPLE who moved to Bolton to raise their six adopted children are encouraging other families to consider adoption as part of a new campaign aiming to dispel myths around who is eligible to adopt.

Amy Hathaway and her husband Ben have six adopted children including five from Tanzania in East Africa and their youngest daughter Ameena aged 3.

Earlier this year, a new report revealed that over four in ten (45%) adults in the UK have considered adoption. But, despite this, over six in 10 (62%) adults do not feel they know much about the adoption process.

To help people realise adoption could be something for them, Chester-based charity Adoption Matters is launching its #YouCanAdopt campaign which will feature Amy and Ben's story alongside singer Sinitta and TV vocal coaches Carrie and David Grant in encouraging others to consider adoption.

Amy said: "Our children are all Black African and we are white British so our story is not a 'typical' one. We chose adoption as our first and only way of creating a family. I have known since I was a little girl that I would adopt my children and they are all incredible."

The seeds were planted when Amy was six and saw the 1984 Ethiopian famine on TV.

"One of my most vivid memories as a child was watching the Ethiopian famine on John Craven’s Newsround when I was five years old," she said. " The images I saw of starving orphans in Africa never left me."

Amy and Ben met at university and moved to Tanzania to work at an International School there. During the weekends and evenings they volunteered at a local orphanage and seeing all the children who needed families soon decided to apply to adopt and later set up their own home Forever Angles caring for orphaned and abandoned babies before returning to the UK.

"We moved to Bolton, a very diverse city and it was definitely the right decision," added Amy. "My children attend a very diverse school and have African friends which was so important to them and me.

"I can honestly say that adoption is without a doubt, the best thing I ever did."

To find out more about adoption, download an information pack at: www.adoptionmatters.org/contact-us-2/ or contact us on Freephone: 0300 123 1066 or by email: info@adoptionmatters.org