A woman who was abandoned in Hong Kong before being adopted by a British couple has admitted she just wants to find relatives who ‘look and sound like her’ in ‘one of the toughest ever’ Long Lost Family searches.
Claire Martin, 58, was nearly two-years-old when she arrived at Heathrow Airport from Hong Kong’s overcrowded orphanages in December 1960 after being adopted by a couple in Liverpool.
But despite the happy adoption, Claire struggled to fit into the predominantly white community, recalling: ‘As soon as I went to school it was very obvious that I was different from everybody else.’
The mother-of-one was abandoned in a stairwell and with records scarce and no information about her birth family, co-presenter Nicky Campbell admits on tonight’s Long Lost Family that Claire’s search for her family has been ‘one of the toughest’.
But Claire refuses to give up, explaining: ‘I just have to hope… Even if I can’t find my birth parents, I will be happy to find any birth family. I just want to meet somebody who looks like me, sounds like me, thinks like me, laughs like me.’
Thanks to DNA testing, Claire eventually discovers distant blood relatives – including a woman she was already friends with Joanna Battershell.
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Claire Martin (pictured), 58, was nearly two-years-old when she arrived at Heathrow Airport from Hong Kong’s overcrowded orphanages in December 1960 after being adopted by a couple in Liverpool
But despite the happy adoption, Claire (pictured after her arrival at Heathrow Airport in 1960) struggled to fit into the predominantly white community, recalling: ‘As soon as I went to school it was very obvious that I was different from everybody else.’
Claire was nearly two-years-old when she was adopted into Britain from Hong Kong’s overcrowded orphanages.
Her adoption was arranged through an international scheme, which sent around 100 children to the UK in the 1960s to be adopted by British couples.
Looking back she says: ‘The only thing that I know absolutely is that I arrived at Heathrow airport on the 20th December 1962. At the airport everyone’s going off to their destinations or coming back, but for me it’s different, this is the start of my life.’
Claire grew up near Liverpool and had a happy adoption but struggled to fit into the predominantly white community.
She recalled: ‘As soon as I went to school it was very obvious that I was different from everybody else. I remember when I was about six or seven, I prayed to be white… but I woke up and I was still Chinese.’
At the age of twelve, Claire’s adoptive mother died and her need to find out about her birth family intensified. Now married with a daughter of her own, she still craves answers: ‘It’s a huge void not knowing who you are… it’s very difficult to survive without roots.’
The mother-of-one was abandoned in a stairwell and with records scarce and no information about her birth family, co-presenter Nicky Campbell (pictured) admits on tonight’s Long Lost Family that Claire’s search for her family has been ‘one of the toughest’
Co-presenter Nicky admits to Claire that the search for her birth parents has been a difficult one for the Long Lost Family team.
He explains: ‘This really is one of the toughest searches that has ever come our way. I know that our search team felt that finding anything more about your mother is impossible in the UK and the only way to do it was for you to be out there on the ground in Hong Kong where it all started.’
Wanting to stay positive, Claire replies: ‘I just have to hope that I find someone who lives there, someone who remembers something. Even if I can’t find my birth parents, I will be happy to find any birth family.
‘I just want to meet somebody who looks like me, sounds like me, thinks like me, laughs like me. I haven’t got anybody like that. And now’s the time to do it. I’m 58, if I don’t do it now, anybody with any memories 58 years ago will be gone.
‘If my mother had me when she’s very young, it’s possible she’s still alive. But it’s nearly 60 years ago, so we’re asking somebody quite elderly to remember something that unlocks it all.’
But Claire (pictured with co-presenter Davina McCall) refuses to give up, explaining: ‘I just have to hope… Even if I can’t find my birth parents, I will be happy to find any birth family. I just want to meet somebody who looks like me, sounds like me, thinks like me, laughs like me.’
She added: ‘Obviously I’d like to find my parents but I would be happy to find any birth family because it would give me a sense of belonging, which I haven’t had.’
With only her birth certificate and no information about her birth family there’s a limit to what Claire can uncover from the UK. As such, she’s sent to Hong Kong to try and discover more.
She makes an emotional visit to the stairwell where she was abandoned, saying: ‘I very much get the impression [my birth mother] wanted me to survive because she left me… probably the most comfortable place she could find to leave me.
‘People often ask me I if can forgive my mother for leaving me, but I think she was in such dire and desperate circumstances she didn’t have any choice.’
Claire launches an appeal across Hong Kong media in the hope that someone will come forward with information and follows a lead on her birth certificate to Po Leung Kuk, one of the city’s orphanages.
She meets with an archivist who shows Claire a photo of the matron who signed her birth record but sadly there is no evidence remaining of Claire’s time at the orphanage.
Eventually, she does get a response to her appeal, with David Chor coming forward and explaining his family worked in the building where Claire was found.
Thanks to DNA testing, Claire (pictured during the show at Heathrow Airport) eventually discovers distant blood relatives – including a woman she was already friends with Joanna Battershell
David was around ten years old at the time and remembers his mother calling the police. Overjoyed to have found some connection to her past Claire says: ‘I can’t believe it. I’ve actually met somebody [who saw] me… in 1960. After all the emotion I’ve been through, at last I’ve had some good news!’
As well as the appeal, Claire takes DNA tests, which are added to several online databases. Unfortunately, her closest matches turn out to be too remote to trace her birth parents.
However, there are a number of distant blood relatives, many based in the UK and incredibly one of them, Joanna Battershell, is already a close friend of Claire’s.
Claire and Joanna met up eight years ago when they discovered they flew into Heathrow on the same flight to be adopted.
Speaking about being related, Claire says: ‘It’s just unbelievable! We’ve always said we are sisters in spirit.
‘It’s extraordinary that I went all the way to Hong Kong looking for relatives and, in the end, found them in the UK… I feel as though I have got a family now, which I never had before and it’s a big family.’
Long Lost Family airs at 9pm on ITV tonight