'I was abandoned as a baby in a phone box - now I want to find my mum'

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Abandoned in a phone box as a newborn in 1994, 32-year-old April Paul has teamed up with the stranger who rescued her—now a father figure—to launch a fresh appeal for her birth mum.

A woman abandoned in a phone box as a baby and the good samaritan who found her are launching an appeal to find her birth mother. April Paul, 32, from north west London, asks: “Where are you, Mum? Please come forward, I’d love to talk to you. She adds: “Every time I walk past a phone box I think of her and wonder where she is, and if she ever thinks of me too.”

It is estimated that about 16 babies are abandoned in the UK each year and the majority are newborns. April is a foundling - a term for infants who are left by their parents in places where they will likely be discovered, such as hospitals, parks, public toilets, or phone boxes, and subsequently raised through adoption or foster care.

She says: “As a foundling, you’re left with so many questions. Who am I? No-one knew my race, my ethnicity, in the beginning, because Mum didn't come forward. As I’ve grown older, things like medical history remain a mystery. Meeting my mum would help answer questions like, what will life be like when I am old?”

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Ariel Bruce, lead search and social work consultant on the ITV documentary series Long Lost Family says April’s experience is common for a foundling. She explains: “When an adopted person reaches the age of 18, they're entitled to access their original birth certificate, which tells them the name of at least one parent. Usually, there's a social work file too, that gives a context to how the adoption came to take place - parents, ethnic background, medical histories. For a foundling, none of that stuff exists.”

As well as medical questions going unanswered, Ariel says: “There's a human need to know where we come from. Who we are.” On April 30 1994, only a few hours old and still with her umbilical cord attached, she April was found in the early hours of…

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