I became Britain’s youngest gran at 30 – there was no point yelling at daughter about contraception
YOUTHFUL Kelly Healey holds the record for being Britain’s youngest gran- at just 30 years old.
Her daughter Skye Salter, now 17, gave birth to baby boy Bailey in August 2018.
Kelly, now 34, loves hitting the streets around her West London home with her little grandchild, as everyone believes she is the toddler’s mum.
Full-time mum Kelly has five children of her own, with her youngest, now the baby’s two-year-old uncle.
Glam Kelly told The Sun: “Of course I was surprised as I never expected to find out I would become a nan, while still in my 20s.
“But there was no point in yelling at Skye about contraception and safe sex. What was done was done. All I could do was offer love and support.
Read More on Real Life
“When I found out the news from her step-mum, I immediately called her and said: ‘Skye, I’m your mum and I love you. I will always support you and you can tell me anything’.
“She was so worried I would be angry, but I wasn’t, as a mum you just deal with these things.”
The teenager did not discover she was expecting until she was 36 weeks and four days pregnant.
Skye who was living with her dad and step-mum at the time in Cranford, west London, had started having sex, so asked her stepmum if she could go on the contraceptive implant.
Most read in Fabulous
Before getting an appointment at the sexual health clinic, as a precaution she took a digital pregnancy test which revealed she was ‘four-plus weeks’ pregnant.
Skye remembers: “I was stunned. I had a secret feeling I might be pregnant which is why I’d suggested the test. The dad is a local lad around my own age.
“My periods had always been up and down, so I didn’t think much of it when I missed them.
“My step-mum was very calm but took me straight to the GP.
“Working back from my last period, they incorrectly said I was likely to be 25 weeks pregnant.”
The doctor immediately referred Skye to West Middlesex Hospital, Isleworth, west London for scans and there it was discovered she had less than four weeks to go.
Skye says: “I couldn’t believe it. I was potentially days off becoming a mum. Just weeks earlier I had been doing PE and climbing up and down hills.
“Of course, finding out I was pregnant so late meant abortion wasn’t an option.
“But I couldn’t have done that anyway. Seeing my baby’s heartbeat on the screen, my heart filled with love.
“I knew from that point onwards I would always take second place, and my baby boy would take first.”
Kelly says: “I was stunned. I was worried about all the things she had been doing during her pregnancy.”
Kelly had Skye, her eldest, when she was 15 as well as four others who range in ages down to two-years-old.
Discovering she was pregnant in December 2017, Skye decided she wanted to come home to Kelly, then living in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent.
Mum and daughter got to grips with the coming arrival, buying a crib, nappies and tiny outfits.
Without the baby’s dad, who Skye was no longer with, the duo tackled the end of the pregnancy together.
Despite the shock, Kelly enjoyed imparting grandmotherly knowledge to her daughter and spending the time together in the weeks leading up to the birth.
Kelly says: “I fell pregnant with Skye when I was 15, with a local boy who I’d been seeing on-and-off, so I knew a lot about it.
“I told her how I’d done a pregnancy test in the public loos in Hounslow, West London anxiously awaiting the result and I was so nervous about telling my mum, her nan, I posted the positive result through our letterbox and ran away.
“But I also added to Skye that she was the best thing that had ever happened to me, although I’d struggled afterwards and been in-and-out of bed and breakfasts.
“Labour is really tough, all mums know that, and I wanted Skye to be prepared for it.
“It was too late for antenatal classes but I talked her through it and said I would be there, supporting her.”
The teenager went into labour at Kelly’s home on August 15 2018, and after a traumatic five-hour labour, an emergency Caesarean delivery at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kent, brought little Bailey into the world, weighing 7lb 3oz.
‘SHE JUST SMASHED IT’
Skye says: “It was the worst pain I’ve ever been in.
“I was crying and didn’t think I could do it – but mum was there telling me I could, and I would.
“After the emergency c-section, he was handed to me and I fell straight in love.”
Kelly remembers becoming a grandma with pride.
She says: “I was besotted with him, like he was one of my own.
“I was so proud of her. Immediately she took to it, going into ‘mum mode’ – she just smashed it.
“We’re a big family, so Skye was used to nappy changes and she leapt straight in.”
Single Skye is living in a flat in Hounslow, west London.
Kelly says: “I love cuddling Bailey, and his aunts and uncles enjoy it too. They really dote on him and are so sweet with their nephew.
“I’m not sure my mum was ready to be a great gran at 48 though – I think that makes her the youngest great gran in the UK too.
“My mum had me at 17.”
The family joins a small number of Brits who became grandparents in their 30s.
Gemma Skinner from Amersham, Bucks made headlines in October 2021 when her daughter Maizie, 17, gave birth to baby girl Larosa Mae making her the previous record holder for Britain’s youngest gran at 33.
Kelly has got to grips with becoming a young nan.
She says: “Before he was here, I said: ‘He’s not calling me nan. He can call me Kelly.’
“Now he does call me nan, but it sounds so weird when a little voice pipes up.
“I still love doing my make-up and wearing glam clothes. I act like I’m in my early 20s, so it doesn’t feel right to be a granny, although I love him.
“My friends think it’s hilarious I’ve got a grandson. He’s always getting mistaken for my son.”
Skye is now used to being a mum, but had to deal with societal pressures.
She says: “I do get some strangers giving me looks but nothing too bad as generally people just think Bailey is my mum’s baby.
“Some of my friends have been great – but others have just drifted away.
“I had to grow up, I’ve got my head screwed on.
“The idea of him ever being taken off me is awful so I work really hard to make sure people realise that although I am young, I am determined to be a great mum.
Read More on The Sun
“I’ve now got qualifications in hairdressing and what I’m really interested in doing is helping troubled youths.
“Bailey is lovely, he’s energetic, cheeky and just non-stop fun. Saying that, I wouldn’t want him to make me a nan at 30.”