Woman's Own

A STRANGER CHANGED OUR LIFE

We heard the taxi arrive outside and leapt into frantic action. My husband Kevin and I hurriedly pushed the two barking dogs into the far room, yelled up to our three children, grabbed jumpers and stumbled out into the dark courtyard. The outside bulb over our doorway was broken, so the only light was what escaped our windows and the yellowish glare from inside the cab. Inside was a young refugee to whom we’d offered a home.

Our journey to this moment in December 2021 had started just a few months earlier, when an ad appeared on my Facebook feed. Stirling Council needed families to host unaccompanied young people seeking asylum. These were teenagers aged 16 to 18, who had travelled to

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