I have to be below a certain age

Untrue.

While the youngest age at which people can adopt is 21, there is no upper limit. What matters to adoption agencies is matching the right child to the right family.

For instance it is unlikely they would allow a single woman in her fifties to adopt a baby. But many of the children adopted today are older children and so it is likely agencies would quite happily entertain the idea of an older adopter taking in an older child – and conversely would be unlikely to let a younger couple adopt an older child.

However, in reality, few people adopt children when they get beyond their mid-fifties. Some agencies have a policy of allowing only a specified age gap between proposed adopters and adopted children.