We've all heard the story of someone buying a home, thinking everything is ok, yet under the surface, hidden problems bubble away, until one day, you uncover a problem that then turns into an even bigger problem. And, like all others that have heard similar stories, we never expected it would happen to us! For most people this would be a problem, for us, it is especially so since our home also currently serves as a foster home for a young child, and will be a home for other children in the short future.

Despite numerous loans and many hours of dedicated effort repairing damage to the home, we have been left to deal with a serious and dangerous hole in front of the house, which, if left unattended, could result in a part of the house collapsing on its foundation. Unfortunately, due to a legal loophole regarding ownership, the damage is not covered by either the previous owner (who is now deceased), the council or the insurance company, leaving us to pick up the costs of repair.

We have been fostering for 3 years now and despite the imbalanced costs that having another young child in our lives can be at times, we have no regrets when seeing Logan's happy face and cheeky smile (see profile pic and you'll see what we mean!). Since our eldest son is now an adult and has moved out, over the last year, we have have been working with the local child support agency to set into motion the process of fostering more children, which is just about complete and due to start in 2018.

Unfortunately, uncovering this damage means that our home is no longer the safe environment it needs to be, and repair is beyond our personal ability. Since more home-repair loans are out of the question, we are turning to the community to ask for support in either helping us to raise the funds to repair the damage to create a safe home once again for Rochdale and Heywood's troubled children, who are in need of a safe and loving environment; or may know of a cost-effective construction engineer that could affordably assist us.

If everyone we knew and cared for dedicated £5, we would finish the fundraising immediately; however, we fully understand that not everyone has that much to spare. Anything you can give will make a powerful difference. At the same time, any information regarding a construction engineer able to effectively repair the damage would also help a great deal.