Teresa's father died when she was a child. But then one of her relatives let slip that he had been married before and had had another daughter - 25 years Teresa’s senior. She knew she had to find her.

Teresa's parents married in 1940. She was 20 and he was 37. But her father had been married before, had had one daughter and then divorced. Teresa knew nothing of this, and was raised as an only child. But in 1985 a relative let slip that her father had had an earlier family. She immediately asked if there had been any children and the relative, realising her error said "no".

Teresa's first picture of Christine

This was the first sight of her sister and Teresa says "she looked so much like me that it was the shock." They had similar hair and eyes, and Teresa could see a likeness to their father. She knew she’d have to find her.

Teresa aged 10

Although she had the photograph, Teresa had no idea where her sister was. She contacted a couple of tracing agencies but they came up blank. Instead she decided on what she describes as a "high risk" strategy. She compiled all the information she had on Christine and, together with the photograph, sent it to a local newspaper in the area where she knew her sister had lived as a child. Teresa thought it was worth the risk.

At 7.00pm on the evening that they published the story, Teresa got a phone call saying "We’ve found your sister." She spoke to Christine on the telephone that evening and says it was extraordinary. Although they didn’t sound alike, they did think along the same lines, "we laugh at the same things, we just feel completely comfortable in every way together."

They met for the first time within a month. They took one look at each other, said "Hello sister" and burst into tears. At the first meeting they both had their birth certificates with them which bears their fathers name. Teresa has a photograph of them holding their certificates. Teresa discovered that Christine has four children roughly the same age as her and that "Christine"'s son is the spitting image of their father.

Teresa and Christine's father

Christine knew that her father had remarried and had had a child, but she didn’t know anything more than that. She hadn’t seen her father since she was ten and when Teresa was ten he died so, she says, one of the things they had in common was "we both only had this gentleman who was our father for ten years each".

Teresa says that, unfortunately, due to the mores of the time, unpleasant marriage splits were never talked about. But it turned out that Christine had longed for a sister too and both regret that they never found each other earlier.