Most mums dream of peace and quiet, but Sue Radford is not most mums. With 22 children and 10 grandchildren, Sue loves the chaotic warmth of having her brood around her.
In September, Sue’s youngest daughter, four-year-old Heidie, will begin school, leaving Sue without a tot under her feet for the first time in her adult life. “Heidie starts school in September, so things will be very different for me because I won’t have any babies at home,” laments Sue. “That will be a strange feeling.” Sue and her husband Noel are parents to Britain’s biggest family, sharing Chris, 35, Sophie, 30, Chloe, 28, Jack, 27, Daniel, 25, Luke, 23, Millie, 22, Katie, 21, James, 20, Ellie, 19, Aimee, 18, Josh, 17, Max, 15, Tillie, 14, Oscar, 12, Casper, 11, Hallie, nine, Phoebe, seven, Archie, six, Bonnie, five and Heidie, four.Their 17th child, Alfie, was stillborn in 2014 and would now be 10 years old.
Sue and Noel raise their huge clan in a 10-bedroom townhouse in Morecambe, but recently celebrated after their offer was accepted on an £850,000 country home, where Sue hoped to enjoy a slightly quieter life.
However, the couple recently received the devastating news that the house sale had fallen through and Sue has now given up on her dream. “We really wanted to move to the countryside for a quieter life, a bit more privacy,” she explains. “When it fell through it was absolutely gutting, but sometimes you think these things happen for a reason and I guess it was just not meant to be.
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