Dilly Carter, presenter on the hit BBC show Sort Your Life Out, has this week become an ambassador for Adoption UK. 

Adoption UK is the leading charity supporting adoptees with challenges they face because of traumatic experiences in their early childhoods.   

Dilly said: “As an adoptee myself, I’m really excited about working with Adoption UK to help young adoptees live bravely and reach their potential.” 

Adopted at age three from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Dilly grew up with a strong sense of her own identity, but largely unsupported in finding her place in the world.

She describes her relationship with her English Mum and Sri Lankan Dad as “...very functional, but I was never short of love. My parents were working so hard to give me a lovely life, but we didn’t spend a lot of time together.” She did not have any professional help to understand and process her life story until she was an adult.  

She got the bug for organising at a young age. She was tidying the shelves at her local supermarket aged 9, arranging private homes in her late teens and then helping her mother, who suffers from bipolar disorder, sort out her 'living chaos' at home.  

Dilly is now on our screens in Sort Your Life Out, a programme that helps people who have become overwhelmed by family life to take back some control at home.

Dilly is also the author of two books - Change Your Space and Create Space – with a fresh take on the link between mental wellbeing and decluttering.  

Dilly will be helping Adoption UK to raise awareness of modern adoption, and the challenges many adopted people face. She will campaign with the charity for better support for adopted children and young people, including in school and managing the transition to adulthood, and ensuring adult adoptees can get the help they need with tracing records, seeking birth family and getting therapeutic support.  

CEO of Adoption UK Emily Frith said: “We’re thrilled Dilly’s joining the Adoption UK family. Like most adoptees she had a tough start in life but she has shown remarkable resilience. She’s a great role model and mentor, but not just that – she’s keen to roll her sleeves up and help campaign for the support that all adopted people need and deserve.”