AUTHOR Frank Cotrell-Boyce will be on the judging panel of a creative writing competition aimed at getting children in foster care to tell their stories.

Inspiring Stories has been developed by the award-winning You Can Foster campaign with the hope it will reveal a sense of value and motivation that carers can instil in children and help shape lives for the better.

Entries, which will be across five age categories, are to be judged by an auspicious panel of children’s authors and poets, which includes Rainhill children’s author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

Other judges are poet Tony Walsh, children’s authors Cathy Cassidy, Livi Michael and Dan Worsley.

The competition is aimed at children in foster care across Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire and Merseyside.

Frank, who was the writer behind the 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, said: “Stories are how we make sense of our lives.

"The only way we can hope to understand another person is by listening to their story. The only way we can hope to understand ourselves is by finding someone who will listen to our story.

"When we hear other people’s stories we discover we are not alone in our troubles. And we learn that there are solutions to our problems.

“As G K Chesterton said - we don’t read fairy stories to learn that dragons are real. We read them to learn that dragons can be defeated.”

Frank’s books include award-winning Millions and The Unforgotten Coat and he has also written a number of sequels to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming.

Stories for the competition can be submitted can be a personal account of a fostering experience or an inspirational tale that needs to be told.

Entries can be fiction, non-fiction, written or even drawn so that all ages can engage with the competition.

Visit youcanfoster.org/competition to find out more and submit their stories no longer than 800 words.

Deadline for entries is 5pm, on Friday, November 17.