Keith Flemming had the shakiest of starts in life... 
One of the few photos Keith has of himself as a young boy
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"When I was a tiny baby I was left on the edge of a road, under a hedge. It was the middle of nowhere. I've been back to the hedge twice. Both times I was very moved by it. It was like visiting a grave." And that's how Keith Flemming's life began. It was fortunate that a lady living nearby in a small row of isolated cottages in Alderley Edge in Cheshire decided to take her dog for a walk. She found Keith wrapped in a dirty blue blanket. He wasn't new born. For six or seven days his mother had kept him before leaving her son by the roadside.
The local paper made the abandoned baby into something of a local celebrity. He was looked after in a children's home, adopted and then emigrated with his adoptive mum and dad to Canada at the age of ten. Keith, now in his 50s, has a happy life there teaching Modern Languages.
Then two years ago, as Keith planned a visit to Knutsford in Cheshire a friend suggested he got in touch with the local paper to see if they were interested in a story along the lines of, "Canadian returns after 50 years to find the hedge he was left under as a baby"!
Keith did just that, and The Knutsford Guardian published his story. That was how Mary Eaton, who had worked in the children's home where Keith was taken for the first few months of his life, discovered that one of her charges, a very special baby, was back in the country. She wrote immediately to the paper, but by the time the story had been published, Keith had flown back to Canada.
Coming home from work, Keith spied a letter lying on his front step. It began, "A big hello from 50 years ago! I've often wondered what happened to you..." It crossed Keith's mind that this could be his birth mother, but the letter went on, "I'm the lady who looked after you in the children's home."
In the first few months of Keith's life, it was Mary who'd tried to make up for what had happened, "He had such a bad start, someone had to be on his side." Keith was known to her then as Philip Chelford. Abandoned babies took their surname from the place they were found, but the name 'Philip' was chosen by Mary (after Prince Philip whom she rather likes). Even the doctor who gave 'Philip' a check-up thought there was something a bit special about him. Mary remembers him declaring that the baby had, "upper-class breathing, was a clever baby and would do well".
For several months, Mary looked after baby until the Flemmings adopted him. She liked the couple but was very upset at having to part with the baby she'd felt for and cared for, "I still think of him as Philip Chelford."
Keith feels that he owes Mary a great deal, and having got back in contact, the two remain close friends. But Keith still wonders about his birth mother, "I'd just like to know she's well and happy and has a good life. I have no anger or resentment. But it would be nice if someone out there knew I had a wonderful life in Canada and that I'm well and happy."
