An Innocent Baby: Why would anyone abandon little Darcy-May?

Description

When foster carer, Cathy Glass, is asked to foster Darcy-May, a two-day old baby, she is very concerned. The baby is coming to her straight from hospital and will have no contact with her teenage mother, Haylea. Even more worrying, she will be brought to Cathy with a police escort as it's vital her extended family don't know where she is. Abandoned at birth, Cathy and her family quickly bond with little Darcy-May although they have to accept she will eventually leave them to be adopted. But fostering is rarely straight forward, and when Haylea asks to see her baby a different story begins to emerge. It's so alarming that even Cathy, a highly experienced foster carer, struggles.

Cathy Glass is a pseudonym. She has been a foster carer for over 20 years, during which time she has looked after more than 100 children, of all ages and backgrounds. Cathy runs training courses on fostering for her local Social Services, and helps draft new fostering procedures and guidelines. Cathy has three teenage children of her own; one of whom, Lucy, was adopted after a long-term foster placement. Cathy has always had an interest in writing, combining fostering with occasional freelance journalism and commercial writing, usually when a particular issue stirs her passion. Before the success of Damaged she had written on health and social issues for the Guardian, the Evening Standard, Luton News, and the Hemel Gazette. She is also a published fiction writer, with poems and short stories published in a number of commercial magazines. Cathy's books have been constantly in the best-seller charts since Damaged was published in 2007, having sold over 2 million copies across her titles worldwide.