Heartbreak and joy in John’s search for long-lost dad

a local football team. He was stunned to found out that he was adopted.

“Reality changed that day for me,” he said. I remember thinking ‘where are my real parents?’ Are they alive? The biggest issue was, why am I not with them?”

He began trawling through records at Huddersfield library where he discovered his mum, Marlene Munro, had died. She had been 17 when John was born.

He was unable to find his dad but the programme was able to reveal his name and that he had been a plumber in Manchester, had married three times and had died, aged 68, a decade ago.

Presenter Davina McCall then revealed that John has two siblings – Gaynor, who lives in Bulgaria, and Stephen, who lives near Blackpool. A DNA test proved the family link.

John and Stephen were introduced on the show and hit it off straight away in an emotional get-together.

Stephen revealed that his dad had “disappeared” when he was eight and he had spent 10 years searching for him.

John, who was in tears on meeting his brother for the first time at a pub in the Yorkshire Dales, said: “I feel calm, I feel belonging, and that for me is what I’ve missed. There’s a lot of catching up to do. It’s the start of my life again.”

He told his brother: “I’m so happy that you’re here. I don’t have any blood family so I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”