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Foster kids overcome hurdles

Achievers: Reece Evans and Marcus Eyles. Picture: Ben Crabtree/The West Australian

Having grown up in foster care, Marcus Eyles and Reece Evans are used to moving around.

At times, they have struggled to overcome the lack of stability in their lives.

Marcus, 16, went into State care at age two and lived with his grandmother and in several foster homes until he was 11, when he moved in with a Butler couple who sent him to Clarkson Community High School.

At school he met education assistant Beverly Colbridge, who took him in three years ago and has given him the opportunity to take up surfing, play football and go on his first overseas trip.

Marcus, who rarely used to go to school, is now working hard to finish Year 11 and studying electrotechnology at TAFE so he can get an apprenticeship.

He said he hated moving from place to place but had come to accept it as normal until he moved in with Ms Colbridge.

"I thought I was going to be one of those kids who moved around a lot - and that's how it was before Bev fostered me," Marcus said.

"When I moved in with Bev she made me realise you can get somewhere if you try. It's just about your attitude."

Reece, 21, said his family went through a rough patch when he was 13 because his father was an alcoholic and he and his three brothers went into foster care.

He recently completed a Certificate III in horticulture and is working full-time as he saves to buy a house and start his own horticulture business.

He said before he went into care he was going down a bad path, drinking heavily from the age of 12, but his foster carers had helped him to understand independence and showed him how the world "really was".

Despite the difficult times, he said he always knew what he had wanted to do for a career because he enjoyed gardening with his parents as a child. Reece and Marcus are recent winners of the Department for Child Protection and Family Support's Perth Airport Achiever Awards.

More than 40 winners aged 15 to 25 from Karratha to Bunbury got up to $4000 each for further education and training.