Sue Radford! The most fertile family in Great Britain
Baby number 22! The most fertile family in Great Britain adds another. However, Sue Radford (44) and her husband Noel (48) had sworn last year that it would remain with 21 children. Striking detail: after the ninth child, the man allowed himself to be sterilized, but the procedure was clearly undone again.
The couple from the British coastal town of Morecambe announced the happy news in a YouTube video. “I am 15 weeks pregnant, we will soon know the sex of the baby. The big question remains of course whether we will end with eleven sons and eleven daughters. I already have a feeling that it will be a boy. The birth is planned for April.”
Sue was seven years old when she ran into the love of her life. A first child already followed at the age of fourteen. Despite the young age, they decided to keep the little one. They were themselves given up for adoption at birth and they wanted to save Chris from suffering. When Sue was 17 years old, two new milestones followed: she married Noel and gave birth to her second child, Sophie.
Child benefit: 200 euros per week
The large family now lives in a large Victorian home that used to be a care home. There are ten bedrooms. The couple is proud to have never benefited from the system. For example, they receive only €200 a week through child benefit. They work very hard to get rid of the costs. Nowadays they run a bakery with their cutters.
The figures prove that life at the Radford house is pleasantly disturbed: the weekly budget for food is around 400 euros. Every day the family goes through three large boxes of cereal, three liters of fruit juice and nine liters of milk. A little more than a hundred euros is set aside for a birthday of one of the children. An evening in a fast-food restaurant can easily cost 175 euros.
“We also like to go to the cinema. This is a handy pastime when it rains, and the children get bored. But a ticket nowadays also costs 11.5 euros per person, so calculate it,” says Sue.
“The only luxury is traveling”
A day starts for Sue at 6.30 am and ends at 11 pm. Noel is even awake from 5 pm to bake bread, and often he works eleven hours in a row. Breakfast is served in two shifts. Sue does a laundry wash nine to twelve times a day.
Despite the substantial bills, there is still enough money left to go on holiday every year. This year they have already been to Florida, their next destination should be the Netherlands. “But that is our only luxury, for example, we do not smoke or drink,” says Sue. “I think it’s important that our children see us work.”
“Of course, everyone thinks that we get extra money from the government, but that is not the case: there are many large families who can perfectly take care of their own needs. We also do not want to benefit from group discounts, that would be unfair. We will keep an eye on discount promotions on the internet.”
“We experience the nicest days when we go to the beach, go for a picnic or just walk with the children. Fortunately, those activities are free.”
Son lost
But not everything went well with the Radfords. The couple lost son Alfie in 2014 after 23 weeks of pregnancy. Sue acknowledged that. As a tribute, the daughter who followed received Alphia as a second name. “Losing a child changes you as a person, I will never be the same as before. I am now teaching myself to put a smile on my face, even in periods when I am not in the mood for that at all,” concludes Sue.
Finally, you will get a clear overview of all names and ages: Chris (30), Sophie (25), Chloe (24), Jack (22), Daniel (20), Luke (19), Millie (18) , Katie (16), James (16), Ellie (14), Aimee (13), Josh (12), Max (10), Tillie (9), Oscar (7), Casper (6), Hallie Alphia (4) ), Phoebe (3), Archie (2) and Bonnie Raye (eleven months). Only the two elders have left the house in the meantime. Sophie, in turn, has already given birth to three children.
