Lancaster man meets the foster parents he never forgot for first time in 40 years

Phillip Walker was fostered in 1984 at the age of six, along with his younger brother Chris.

At the time his family was living in Windermere Road, but due to his mum needing a stay in the Moor Hospital and his dad working full-time and unable to care for them, the brothers were taken in by foster parents Ken and Marie West.

Although the pair only stayed with the Wests – whose daughter Tracey Bonnell was tragically later murdered – for less than a year, Phillip said the experience changed his life and showed him how much love could be given by a family.

"I can remember snippets," he said. "We would go to Kingsway Baths every Sunday and we went to Butlin's.

"We just had fun every day, it was absolutely brilliant.

"I know I was naughty on the odd occasion but it was always just kind words that I heard.

"There was never a point where they weren't just so kind and full of joy.

"They bent over backwards for us and spoiled us rotten, and it was just fantastic to be with them. They are amazing people.

"To have that love and affection from a family when I had never had that from my own was just crazy."

However, the stay was short-lived as Phillip and Chris were soon sent back to their father, before then being sent to Nazareth House and finally staying with their grandparents through the remainder of their school years at Christ Church Primary School and Central Lancaster High School.

Having suffered abuse at the hands of his father and others in positions of authority, Phillip said he firmly believes life would have been very different for him without the Wests in his life.

"If it wasn't for Ken and Marie I think it would have been a different end for me," he said.

"All I thought about was the love that I had got from them and that pulled me through masses of pain."

Phillip, now 45 and living in Windermere where he works as a chef, decided to try and trace Ken and Marie a year ago.

While he already had paperwork which told him where he had been cared for, he had been unsure whether to follow it up.

"I always asked myself if I wanted to get in contact," he said.

"I kept wondering if they wanted to be found. But then one night I just thought I would put something on Facebook to see if anybody knew Marie and Ken."

It spiralled from there, with numerous people pointing Phillip in the right direction as well as others who said they had also been fostered by the couple.

"It just went berserk," he said. "The next morning my phone was on fire, I had never known anything like it.

"It was absolutely amazing, the feeling was unreal."

As a result of the social media post, Phillip was able to get in touch with Ken and Marie, and meet them for the first time in nearly 40 years.

"As soon as they opened the door that feeling of love and the connection I'd had with them when I was so young was there again," he said.

Phillip was able to see photos of him and his brother as children, as well as share memories of their stay.

"They remembered these two quiet little boys who gradually came out of their shells," he said.

"Marie said she couldn't believe the tiny little thing I was had turned into the 6ft 2ins person in front of her."

Sadly, Phillip had been unaware that Ken and Marie's daughter Tracey was tragically killed in 1997.

He learned the heartbreaking news that Ken was the paramedic first on the scene at the house Tracey had shared with her husband David Bonnell, who was later jailed for life for beating Tracey to death.

"It absolutely broke me," said Phillip, who remembered sharing the family home with Tracey and her siblings Darren and Vicky - who he has also been able to reunite with.

Ken and Marie - who still foster children - recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and Phillip, along with others also fostered by the couple over the years, attended their party and gave a moving speech.

"The whole family is just so welcoming," he said. "I have never come across a family like it, especially after everything they have been through."

Phillip said his short experience of family life with the Wests helped make him the person he is today.

"They literally shaped my life," he said. "If I hadn't seen that love and affection right at the beginning of my life I would have had nothing to live for.

"I thought the world was full of pain but showing love is just second nature to them and I can't sing their praises enough.

"Ken and Marie both just have massive hearts of gold and I honestly owe them my life."