TRIBUTES have been paid to a caring mum who fostered more than 100 children.

Lynn Barrow died on April 7 at the age of 62 after a short illness.

But her legacy lives on in the many children she looked after over the past 37 years and in her own children, Kirsty and Matthew.

Lynn, who lived in South Bank before moving to Huntington, worked in the special baby unit at Fulford maternity hospital before she became a mum herself. She began fostering babies and children under five with her husband, Peter.

Kirsty, 40, was just three when her parents started taking in foster children and said: "It wasn't strange because we didn't know any different. It was just the norm.

"The most she had was two or three at a time if there were siblings. Mums stayed at home more then, so it was something she could do at home."

After Peter's death in 2006, she carried on looking after children in need. Many of the children she took in were either abused, had special needs, or whose parents just couldn't cope. The first child she took in was a little blind girl, whose adoptive parents sent the family a card when Lynn died.

Now Kirsty, who has four children of her own, is becoming a foster carer herself so she can take care of the little boy who was living with her mum when she died.

She said: "I never intended to do it, but I've just been approved as a carer for the short term and am going through the process to become a long-term carer. Mum had a little boy of 11 living with her when she died, who had been with her for nearly six years.

"I'm taking him on because he's like part of the family."

Foster Care Fortnight runs until May 27 and aims to raise awareness of foster carers' hard work. For information visit york.gov.uk/fostering.