Tags

,

I went to interview a lady called Jane Insje a couple of days ago. At the outset it was a human interest story for the newspaper as Jane was voted Britain’s Best Mum this year on ITV’s Lorraine Kelly Show.

The reason? Well Jane is a foster carer who has fostered a whopping 134 children. She was nominated by her 14 year old son Thomas and in his nomination email he said: ‘She gives hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless’. How lovely is that eh?

Jane’s husband Andrew is a fire-fighter, another hero of our times. Every year, he competes in the Police and Fireman games around the world, with Jane and Thomas in tow, using up their annual 2 weeks respite.

They do take additional holidays of course and it is on these, they have to get permissions from the parents of their foster kids to take them out of the county. They do have a holiday home here in Altinkum which is where Jane is now with Thomas, former foster child Gemma and 5 current foster kids. Great eh?  Well, not so, as they have been caught up in the holiday’s 4U fiasco and have just discovered they are not on the passenger manifest for their return flight on Friday.

To get back to the UK, they will have to buy 8 new tickets. To do this, they will have to use the money they have put aside to support Andrew at the games in New York next week. Of course they will eventually get a refund but that’s not going to happen in a week is it? It’s looking highly unlikely that they will be able to go.

So basically, Britain’s best mum, without a doubt a modern day hero, is currently stranded in Turkey which to me, really doesn’t seem fair.

We are going to print the story in this week’s Didim on the Ege, but we are only a little local paper so I thought, I would try and help by contacting the UK press, who would be able to give much more coverage that I hoped might bring in offers of support, flights, help yada yada yada.

So, I rang the Daily Mail and got put though to a female journalist with a plum in her mouth. I gave her an outline and asked would they be interested. She said:

‘Oh no that kind of story is not for us’.

‘Oh’ I said. ‘Well, I’ve been out of the UK for a long time now so perhaps you could point me in the right direction’.

Do you know what she said?

‘Try Take a Break’

Speechless, I put the phone down.

It seems anything to do with Turkey is tarred with a tainted brush. Obviously not newsworthy, obviously not important and obviously not to be taken too seriously.

I wonder what would happen if Jane Insje decided not to take her foster kids too seriously. I wonder what would happen if her fire fighting husband decided not to take his job too seriously?

There’s something just not right about all of this and it makes me sad. When it comes to everyday heroes, Ms Daily Mail certainly does not make the grade. Perhaps one day she will travel to Turkey, fall in love with a bar boy and find herself on the cover of Take a Break……Faith in karma people.

As for our real everyday heroes, I’m not sure what’s going to happen but would be very grateful for any suggestions?