Inheriting parent category template and custom fields

I have gathered a function from Full Thought that allows me to inherit the template of parent categories.

The code:

function inherit_cat_template() {
  if (is_category()) {
  $catid = get_query_var('cat');
  $cat = get_category($catid);
  $parent = $cat->category_parent;
	while ($parent){
	$cat = get_category($parent);
	  if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH . '/category-' . $cat->slug . '.php') ) {
	  include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/category-' . $cat->slug . '.php');
	  exit;
	  }
	$parent = $cat->category_parent;
	}
  }
}
add_action('template_redirect', 'inherit_cat_template');

Now the problem I seem to having is getting custom fields on child categories. It just doesnt want to work.
How can I resolve this?