AN Inverkeithing foster carer has encouraged more people to get involved after watching a child achieve his musical goals.

Myrna and John Venters have looked after 16-year-old Brooklyn Morris since he was just two and are now his permanent carers.

He is just a few steps away from gaining a place at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and expresses himself through music.

He plays bagpipe in the Burntisland and District Pipe Band as well as piano and a range of other instruments.

Myrna, 73, and John, 75, are great-grandparents themselves and have been fostering for more than 20 years, starting with a set of young twins, babies and children up to 12 years old, before welcoming Brooklyn to their home 14 years ago.

She said: "I never thought about fostering, we've got our own family and me and my husband had our own business.

"I started a new job where I was travelling all over Scotland, and I was always struck by the back of buses with fostering campaigns.

"I then met this lady as I was picking up my oldest granddaughter from school and spoke about it, I ended up getting a package sent out but looked at it and didn't think it was for me."

It took Myrna a year to change her mind and she eventually signed up to become a Fife Council foster carer alongside her husband.

"It is a roller coaster of emotions," she said. "If you take things personally it can be hard. You are dealing with a total stranger's family.

"Children have gone back to their families, and some got adopted, we cared for children from babies to 12 years old, I really didn't think I wanted a teenager.

"He came in when he was two, he's 16 now. We thought we were having him for a couple of weeks."

Myrna, who performs on stage regularly, doesn't know if it was her own love for music which inspired Brooklyn, or if it came from elsewhere.

She says he was always "banging about with sticks" and that eventually she and John looked into music tuition.

Brooklyn is now a grade four piper and grade five on the piano and is working towards one last qualification to gain a place at Scotland's conservatoire.

"He is talented but it is a gift as well," Myrna said.

The couple are now classed as older generation foster carers and Fife Council is hoping to find more people to take up positions.

The local authority is searching for a diverse number of people to care for children who can't live with their birth families.

Regular training and development opportunities are provided and there are several types of fostering, including permanent, like how Myrna and John care for Brooklyn, as well as interim and long term.

More information on fostering in Fife and how to get involved can be found on the website foster.fife.scot.