‘I was dumped on a doorstep’
In February 1967, Alley Lofthouse was found wrapped in a pillowcase on the doorstep of a flat in Grangemouth, Scotland, by a paper boy. Authorities believed the newborn – who was covered in blood, with her umbilical cord uncut – had been abandoned in the early hours of the morning. Alley was later adopted by a loving family, who were honest with her about her beginnings. In 2003, after Alley become a mother of three herself, she began an appeal to find her birth mother, appearing in newspapers. A man named Ian came forward who’d also been abandoned at birth in Grangemouth a year after Alley and tests showed they were half-siblings.
Alley, who lives in Hull, says, “It made it even more difficult to discover that my natural mother had abandoned two babies. As I got older, I felt like time was running out. It was very sad that somebody couldn’t stand up and say ‘it was me’.
After contacting the show, Alley’s DNA was tested and the team were able to trace her birth mother, Mae, after potential relatives came forward. She lived less than a mile from where Alley was found, but it was revealed she had died in 2007. Alley was devastated, but the team were able to tell her she had a half-sister, Anne, whom she was able to meet. Anne, who is ten years older than Alley, explained that the family had no idea Alley existed, but her mother had already had three children by two different fathers when Alley was born in 1967 and was struggling as a single mother. Ian followed in 1968, but then in 1977 she gave birth to another girl.
Alley says, “My birth mother being dead was my worst case scenario. I felt jubilation that I’d found a sister, but grief for a woman that I’d never even met. My heart hurt with the emotion of it all.
“To be a foundling means that you have no roots or connection. But now I have some answers.”