FOSTER parents Rod and Rosalie James have lost count of the number of children who have passed through their loving home over the years.

The couple, from Abingdon, who celebrate their 32nd year of fostering children this month, said they stopped counting after 100, many years ago.

Mr and Mrs James, who have three of their own children – Michelle, 47, Christopher, 45, and Beverley, 40, as well as two adopted children Karl and Karina – are both aged 69, but have no plans to close their doors just yet.

Mrs James said: “I think we will carry on until we fall off the end.

“It all started because we both wanted to do something working with children as we were both so fond of them.

“You can have the children for anything from six nights to several years and it’s a very rewarding job – but it can be quite challenging at times.”

Mr James added: “I think it has actually done our own children a world of good, seeing other ways of life, and turned them into better citizens. “ The first child the couple fostered, Karl, they ended up adopting.

Karl, who is now 35, was taken under the James’s wing at the age of four.

He said: “There are times when I have struggled, but I wouldn’t change my life for anything.

“I have kept in contact with my birth family and I see them on a regular basis and we all get along famously.

“I think in our case it was just the right move for everyone at the time.

“I would say to anyone thinking about it, accept it’s going to be challenging at times, but know it is a very rewarding job.”

Meanwhile, Doreen and Peter Sillman, of Parsons Mead, Abingdon, have taken in more than 70 children and made them all feel like one of the family over the last 25 years.

At a party at Foxcombe Court, Abingdon, to mark the milestone, Mrs Sillman, 77, who was awarded an MBE in 2007, was surrounded by more than 30 of those she has helped look after over the years.

The former nursery teacher said: “We’ve always loved children and when ours grew up we thought we still had so much to offer. Seeing so many of them at the anniversary was very special.”

The couple began fostering in September 1984. They currently care for a teenager and provide relief care for three children, one weekend a month.

Mr Sillman, 80, a retired electrician, said: “We try to point the children in the right direction. When they leave us it isn’t sad because we feel like we’ve helped them and they will hopefully go on to better things.”

The first child they cared for was Verity Mooney, a disabled two-year-old.

Mr and Mrs Sillman provided respite care for her parents for 11 years.

Ms Mooney, now 27, and her mother, Jane, 58, from Oxford, were at the reunion.

Mrs Mooney said: “They are the kindest, most generous people.”

Sarah Lawrence, 19, from Compton Close, Didcot, lived with the Sillmans for a month when she was 15. She said: “When I lived with them it was great because they were so patient with me and would sit and let me talk for hours.”

Leann Foster, 20, of Coopers Lane, Abingdon, lived with the couple for three months when she was 15. She said: “I’m still in touch and they will be at my wedding next year.

“They made me feel like one of the family.”