When I got pregnant with my first child I gained nearly 5st. I did a bit of pretending: "I'm just really small, so I just put on a lot of weight when I'm pregnant." That is true, but I also ate a lot of cake.

When I got pregnant with my first child I gained nearly 5st. I did a bit of pretending: "I'm just really small, so I just put on a lot of weight when I'm pregnant." That is true, but I also ate a lot of cake.

The siblings of special needs children are quite special. Absolutely accepting and totally loving, from birth, someone who is different mentally, and has a different way of seeing the world, is a wonderful trait. It's a trait I wish there was another way of getting, but there isn't. And it does involve a degree of not having it fantastically easy.

The children break all my jewelry, so everything I wear is cheap - from Topshop or Dorothy Perkins.

Once you have a Down's syndrome child, you can't conform. In a way, you're free.

A Local Government Stationery Store is something to behold. It's like walking through the back of a cupboard into a really dull Narnia.

Middle-aged women on telly is a bit of a hot topic - before, we were 27 to 37, and now we're 40 to 50. You do notice as you get older... you go past 35, and suddenly you're playing baddies.