Reunited thanks to the web

Rather than the great hope for the future, the world wide web these days is the biggest source of consternation and exasperation for many.

Whether it’s fake news, disturbing online trolls or social media giants playing fast and loose with our personal data, it can often seem that naught but misery can be extracted from the web.

Which is why it’s nice to devote our front page to heartwarming story with the world wide web at its core. As we reveal today, Donna Robertson had all but given hope of ever finding her dad.

She grew up in an out of care homes and all she had ever been told her father was that had been in the Merchant Navy and now lived in New Zealand.

Donna was brought up in Hylton Castle and began trying to trace her dad as soon as she left care at the age of 16. With such a scarcity of information, trying to trace a person without the internet would have been an arduous, time consuming task in days gone by. Even with the internet it is no easy task, but Donna would not give up.

And on her 47th birthday, an internet search came up trumps. What a fantastic birthday present that was.

She managed to track him down and discovered that he had no idea that he was a father and, as Donna has a teenage son, a grandfather too!

The father and daughter have used the internet to speak to each other via Facebook, but while a brilliant tool, the internet is no substitute for physical contact.

The family now want to be brought together so they can wrap their arms around each other.

We sincerely hope this wonderful web story has a truly happy ending.