Long Lost Family to air 'most emotional reunion' ever as Born Without Trace returns

Long Lost Family returns on Monday and looks set to have viewers in tears when it airs its 'most emotional reunion' yet.

The ITV show's spin-off Born Without a Trace begins its third series this week with hosts Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell revealing more astonishing stories of now grown up foundlings desperate to discover their identities and meet their birth family, after years of unanswered questions.

Foundlings are people abandoned as babies, often in the first hours and days of their lives, born without trace, with no birth record or name.

The emotionally charged stories in the new run of Born Without Trace episodes include a woman left over 70 years ago on a luggage rack of a train in Paddington station, to a young man left in toilets near a football stadium in Wolverhampton in 1989.

Episode 1 features Helen Knox, who was found on a cold December morning in Chesterfield 1998 in a box outside of her hospital. Her story made the local news and Helen was quickly adopted and is now engaged with two children of her own.

The only keepsakes Helen has to hold onto are the hospital name tag she was given as a baby for ‘Gill Scarsdale,’ named after the nurse who looked after her and the hospital where she was left, and some photos of her taken with the maternity nurses.

EMBARGOED PICTURE: FOR PUBLICATION FROM TUESDAY 18TH MAY 2021 From Wall To Wall Productions LONG LOST FAMILY: BORN WITHOUT TRACE Ep1 Monday 24th May 2021 on ITV Pictured: Foundling Helen Knox reunited with her half sister Jess Episode one features two foundlings abandoned in Chesterfield just over 18 months apart in the 1980s, Helen Knox and Victoria Vardy. On a cold, frosty morning in December 1988 Helen Knox, then just a few hours old, was discovered in a box outside a hospital. Her parents saw her story on the local news and agreed to adopt her. She had a happy upbringing and is now engaged with two children of her own. But sheÕs always struggled with not knowing anything about her very beginnings. The only keepsakes Helen has to hold onto are the hospital name tag she was given as a baby for ÔGill Scarsdale,Õ named after the nurse who looked after her and the hospital where she was left, and some photos of her taken with the maternity nurses. The search team traces two of these nurses, Gill and Susan, and Helen is reunited with them for the first time in over 30 years. ItÕs an emotional meeting and they share their memories of her first days. (C) Wall To Wall For further information please contact Peter Gray Mob 07831460662 / peter.gray@itv.com This photograph is (C) Wall To Wall and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme LONG LOST FAMILY: BORN WITHOUT TRACE or ITV. Once made available by the ITV Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the Transmission date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other publication or website, or permanently archived, without the express written permission of ITV Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website www.itvpictures.com (ITV)

The Long Lost Family team managed to track down Gill and her nursing colleague Susan, leading to an emotional reunion with Helen.

In a strange twist of fate, the ITV show was approached by another baby also dumped in Chesterfield, with Victoria Vardy, left 18 months earlier.

Victoria had a very happy adoption and now has a daughter of her own. But despite a nationwide media appeal for any information nearly ten years ago, Victoria is still no further to getting answers on who her parents are and why she was left.

The investigations into both women's past leads took everyone involved in Long Lost Family by surprise, with a preview from ITV teasing Monday's episode will bring "one of the most emotional reunions in the programme’s history."

Long Lost Family Born Without Trace is on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at 9pm on ITV