Meet the English Couple with 17 Biological Children

 

Personally, I know the exaustive nature of having to take care of just one kid, but 17 choi! it unthinkable, Here's Britain Largest Family as the couple share their story.

Last year, Noel Radford was taking his children to school when he ‘did a David Cameron’ and left one of them behind by mistake.

‘Noel had set off on the school run and I went upstairs to tidy up and there was Max, our six-year-old, just sitting in his room playing,’ says Noel’s wife, Sue. ‘I rang Noel and said “You’ve forgotten one!” so he came racing back. Little Max was sitting at the window waiting, looking all lost and sad.’

If anyone can be forgiven for such a lapse, it’s Noel. After all, he has rather more excuse than the Prime Minister, who famously left his eight-year-old daughter Florence behind at the pub.

Noel and Sue head up Britain’s largest family, which last week welcomed its latest member — a 7lb 15oz girl called Hallie.

Incredibly, she is the 17th child for the couple whose other children include Chris, 26, Sophie, 21, Chloe, 19, Jack, 17, Daniel, 15, Luke, 14, Millie, 13, Katie, 12, James, 11, Ellie, nine, Aimee, eight, Josh, seven, Max, six, Tillie, four, Oscar, three and two-year-old Caspar.

It may seem like an extraordinary number of children, but Noel, 43, and Sue, 39  who shot to fame several years ago in the Channel 4 documentary 15 Kids and Counting are taking it in their stride.

 

Since Sue got pregnant with their eldest son Chris when she was just 13 she and Noel were childhood sweethearts very few years have gone by when she hasn’t been expecting. The couple say they originally planned on having three children, but they loved the experience so much that they simply kept going.

Of course, large families like the Radfords’ are not uncommon. But what makes their story stand out from the usual headlines about double-digit progeny is that they refuse to rely on state benefits. Instead, they work and support themselves by running a successful bakery business.

‘It’s important that our children see us working,’ says Sue, at their ten-bedroom home in Morecambe, Lancashire.

‘When they’re old enough, they go out to work themselves. Chris is a scaffolder while Sophie and Chloe help out in the shop. They have been doing that since they were 14.

‘Big families will always be tarred with the same brush. People will say “They must be on benefits”, but there are lots of very hard-working large families who support themselves.’

The clues that a large family live in this imposing Victorian home — a former residence for adults with learning disabilities, which they bought 11 years ago for £240,000 — are obvious as soon as you walk up the garden path.

Choi! Aren't there health implications for birthing many kids? Doctors in the house please discuss.