BBC regular Joy Carter will be staging the first stand-up comedy fundraising event featuring four top comics who have had their own experiences around adoption and fostering. Rick Kiesewetter, Paul T. Eyres and Gerry Kyei will join Joy Carter on stage on the 5th of November 2013 for the Comics4Adoption event.

The night will also launch her new campaigns website. The site will be an important resource tool for organisations linked to adoption and fostering, the general public, young, people, families wishing to adopt and adoptees. It will provide information, encouragement and a vital network of experience for all the major charities to get involved in. Joy has started a crowdfunding campaign to assist in funding the website and to stage her event: https://www.sponsume.com/project/national-adoption-week-comedy-campaign “I believe that it is time for a more concerted and direct approach to change attitudes, inspire, educate and help people of all ages affected here in the UK”, says Carter.

An adoptee herself Joy Carter was found next to her dead twin sister in Nigeria and on death’s door herself when only a few days old, before taken to hospital and being adopted by British Missionaries.

She has been campaigning over the past 6 years with BAAF (British Association of adoption and Fostering) but feels compelled to do more. She is planning more events and media projects to raise awareness. "While there a great and positive stories out there there is still so much stigma. People assume a successful adoption spells an happy end. What we don't realise is that child is still working through issues of abandonment and identity or various other issues. Like myself they may have the most amazing parents but yet feel guilty for feeling un-happy instead of grateful and hide behind a happy facade. It was only later I realised that not only do these issues have nothing to do with my parents -which I knew then - but that I could have opened up to them or someone and talked to how I felt. We want to open that conversation with these children and the grown-ups that were once these children."

Currently nearly 7,000 children in the UK are waiting to be adopted, 9,000 foster families are needed the government and media often paint a frightening hopeless picture of adoption and fostering. It is time to change the stereotypes and encourage a brighter future.

Joy is raising money for Save the Children: www.savethechildren.org.uk, Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers: www.nafp.co.uk, Intercountry Adoption Centre: www.icacentre.org.uk “Save the Children are delighted that Joy is supporting us by fundraising... Without the support of our valued fundraisers, we wouldn’t be able to continue our life-saving work with children across the world” - Abi Robertson, Save the children.

“1 in 5 people have a connection with adoption and fostering, but we could do so much more to bring people together to understand, help and support this disparate community. This website has the potential to support and grow a real social network, one that can provide information, challenge myths and stereotypes, and help adopted and fostered children right through to adulthood, because being a child is only the beginning of their story.” - Harvey Gallagher, Chief Executive Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers “Adoption is a lifelong journey… IAC offers support for those who are searching for a personal and cultural connection to their roots and often to their birth family. We are delighted that Joy Carter is an ambassador for Services for Adopted Adults and Adoption.” - Gill Haworth, Chief Executive Intercountry Adoption Centre.

Based on information supplied by Melanie Jones.