It's more than eight years since she first took in a foreign student.

But ever since the year 2000, she's become known across the globe as 'mum' to students from Japan to Greenland, and China to Mexico.

MICHELLE WILSON met the 53-year-old.

WHEN Pat Hadfield's daughter left home everyone expected her to take it easy.

But she surprised everyone with her decision to become a host home for foreign students studying in Hartlepool.

Now teenagers from far away places call her mum.

Sixteen youths have passed through her Chaucer Avenue home – and in one way or another she thinks of them all as her own children.

Pat, 53, said: "It started around eight years ago when a friend from work was doing the same thing, mentioned it to me and suggest I gave it a go.

"At first I wasn't sure. But then she told me about a Japanese student who had been let down by his host family and needed somewhere to stay so I thought why not give it a go."

Ryuta, a Japanese student, was the first to move into Pat's home following a series of checks from the EF Foundation – a group which organises homes throughout the UK for foreign students and pays host families to cover food and expenses for the students.

Pat said: "It was a really good experience and it just went from there really. I've had around 16 students come and live with me, including the four I have now and I already know that there will be two more coming ready for the September term."

This year, for the first time, Pat has also worked directly with Hartlepool Sixth Form College to provide a home for two Chinese students.

It means Pat is "mum" to Wang Beidao and Laing Lan Zhi.

She also has Italian-born Elisabeth "Lizzie" Reshyak and Japanese teenager Kotoko Ygarashi staying with her from the EF foundation.

Wang, who is known as Eric, and Laing and both 18 are studying science subjects at the college while Lizzie, 17, studies music and Kotoko, 18, studies photography at English Martyrs Sixth Form College.

Over the years Pat has taken in students from across the globe including Greenland, Japan, China, Hungary and Mexico. But this is the first time she has ever looked after four.

She said: "I normally have students with me from September to June every year and I normally have two at a time.

"I find out in the summer who I will be getting so we can get to know each other a little over the email.

"There is never a dull moment. We are always on the go and there is always someone to talk to.

Pat, a catering manager at Brierton Lodge care home in the town, added: "They are very friendly and polite and they become part of the family. I am like their substitute mam – Kotoko even calls me mam.

"You get so used to them being here, it is very upsetting when you have to say goodbye as we grow so attached. We all keep in touch with the email and I have cards from every single one of them that has been here."

Pat's family have also grown to love the students that have become part of their lives.

"They are like my family. We have taken students on holiday and we always take the girls shopping," said Pat.

"It is hard at first with the language differences but it gets easier and we always find a way, even if we have to find a way.

"By the end of their stay they never want to go home, they love it here. One of the girls even talks with a Hartlepool accent and says like at the end of her sentences. They pick everything up.

"We all get along great. They all help around the house and my family grow quite attached to them too."

Pat's daughter, Lisa Hitchen, 34, even keeps in touch with several of the students and Pat's partner, Stephen Lochrie, 52, a painter and decorator, has got used to them being around.

Pat, who is a grandmother to Natalie, 17, Nadine, 13, and Michael, 10, said: "Lisa thought I was a bit mad at first, she thought that after she moved out I would want some peace and quiet.

"Stephen thought it was a bit strange at first but we wouldn't have it any other way.

"We get a lot from it too and they teach us things. They regularly cook for us and we try things like sushi, a lot of them are really good cooks.

"They always help around the house. The only time we argue is when they don't clean the bathroom."

Pat added: "Every year I say this will be the last but it never is and this year I have more students than ever.

"I do manage to get a bit of peace during the holidays but we wouldn't change anything.

"We don't do it for the money we do it for the experience, we have met so many lovely people and experienced different cultures, it's great."

Lizzie, who is 17, added: "Being in England is really great and I don't really miss Italy very much.

"It is very different here, especially the way people spend their free time, but it is good fun.

"I have settled in nicely and have made good friends here, especially with everyone in the house.

"Pat is great, she is really supportive and looks after us."

For more information on the EF Foundation, visit www.effoundation.org