I was given up for adoption at three months. My birth mum is deaf and dumb and it was too hard for her to care for me and my brother, Peter. I knew about Peter because he was on my adoption papers, and I’d traced him three years ago. Then in March 2016, he introduced me to our aunt (our birth mum’s sister), who said she thought we had a sister.
I wanted to find her, but felt sure it would be tricky; she could have married and changed her name, she could be anywhere in the world. I found her birth certificate online, so sent off for it. When it arrived I felt elated, but I wasn’t sure what to do next. I decided to put a plea on Facebook: ‘I’m trying to find my sister, born Heather Smith on 26 April 1967 at Northallerton Maternity Hospital, north Yorkshire. Her name could have changed but someone out there might know her. Please, everyone share.’ My post was shared thousands of times.
That was on 12 June. On 14 June, somebody tagged ‘Heather Ede’ in the message. She read it and messaged me saying, ‘I think I’m the Heather you’re looking for.’ I couldn’t believe it was all happening so quickly. For 50 years I didn’t know she existed, and in two days I’d found her. We swapped numbers and talked almost every day.