I am a research assistant and the lead for people with lived experience of having social work involvement. During my time on this particular trial I was reunited with my own son who was adopted at the age of 7 and is now 17. Since being reunited, I tried to find places that could give some support due to social work taking a step back and saying the adoptive parents and myself should just deal with it together.

After speaking with the Professor on my team, I applied for a Fellowship to try to find somewhere that already does the work I am thinking about. I could come back to the UK and use my personal and professional experience to try to set up something that would make the process for adoptive and birth parents easier when a young person wants to find their birth parents, which would then be really beneficial for the young person too.

I would love to provide individual and group support for the adoptive and birth parents as well as for the young people, using my own pain in the hope that it helps others when going through what can be a very tough chapter for all involved. I would love to help make what can be a difficult time and process a bit easier for all.