By Thelma Etim BBC News, Southampton

Lesley Green reunited with her natural mother Joyce Pickett

Her act of kindness accidentally set in motion a chain of events which ended with her finally coming face-to-face with her mother after 35 years.

Unlike some adopted children, Lesley - a personal assistant - never felt "incomplete" because she did not know her natural parents.

"I was curious about what my mother looked like and I wanted to see a picture of her," explained Ms Green, who lives in Southampton.

I always knew I was adopted but they would always tell me I was 'a very special child because I was chosen' by them Lesley Green

"But I have always been so happy with my parents Barbara and John Green. They brought me up in such a loving environment.

"I always knew I was adopted but they would always tell me I was a 'very special child' because I was 'chosen' by them.

"I did not want for anything."

However, fate took over last May, when she mentioned in passing to a social services official that she was adopted, while being interviewed about her friends' adoption plans.

Life-changing e-mail

Ms Green said: "They volunteered to find out whether my original file still existed - it turned out to be in Winchester."

But just a week after the interview, while awaiting news about her file, Lesley received an e-mail "out of the blue" at work from a half-brother she didn't even know existed called Mario.

He had been desperately trying to trace her for more than two years and managed to track her down using the website Genes Reunited.

"It read: 'If you were born in 1970 in Aldershot, I think you are my big sister'," explained Ms Green.

When she finally stood in front of me and said my name, we just stood looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity Lesley Green

"I just burst into tears when I read the e-mail. I thought: Oh, my God. I was astonished, it was hard to take it all in."

During the next six weeks, Mario, 32, and Lesley corresponded through e-mails and she discovered her mother was 52-year-old Joyce Pickett, a bus driver, who lived in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Pickett was 17 years old when she fell pregnant with Lesley while in a relationship with a local DJ called Robert Parry.

Both penniless, the heartbroken couple made the difficult decision to give "Bridget" - as Mrs Pickett named her - up for adoption so she could have "a better quality of life".

The couple later separated and Joyce married Mario's father.

Like mother, like daughter

With Mario as the intermediate tirelessly working behind the scenes with social services, Ms Green and her mother finally met for the first time in Oxford town centre last September.

"We met in town because I wanted to meet her on neutral ground," explained Ms Green. "By now I had seen a picture if her and I was petrified.

"When she finally stood in front of me and said my name, we just stood looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

"She later explained that she was fostered after her mother abandoned her in a pram at 18 months outside a neighbour's house - her father was married to another woman.

"Joyce was delighted that I went to a loving family and had done so well for myself.

"I thought she would look more like me but we do have similar traits, for example, we have been told that we have the same laugh, which is a bit strange."

Ms Green has since been getting to know new members of her family, a second half-brother Duane, 24, and a half -sister Janine.