Woman, 32, who was abandoned in a cardboard box outside a hospital when she was just a few hours old breaks down in tears as she returns for the first time on Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace
- Helen Knox was found abandoned at a Chesterfield hospital in December 1988
- The 32-year-old was left in a cardboard box when she was just a few hours old
- Mother-of-two appears on ITV’s Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace tonight
A woman who was left outside a hospital in a cardboard box when she was just a few hours old breaks down in tears on tonight’s Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace as she returns to the place for the first time.
Helen Knox, now 32, was found abandoned in Chesterfield, on a cold, frosty morning in December 1988.
Her adopted parents saw her story on the local news and rushed to give her a home, with Helen, who is now engaged with two children of her own, having a happy childhood.
But she’s always struggled with not knowing anything about her start in life, revealing: ‘I don’t know what the first few hours of my life were like, where I was and who I was with, who left me there.’
During her search for answers on the three-part ITV series, which airs its first episode at 9pm, an emotional Helen returns to the hospital for the first time since she was discovered outside the building as a newborn.
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Helen Knox, now 32, was found abandoned in Chesterfield, on a cold, frosty morning in December 1988. Pictured, Helen returning to the hospital where she was abandoned
Her adopted parents saw her story on the local news and rushed to give her a home, with Helen (pictured as a baby), who is now engaged with two children of her own, having a happy childhood
Visiting the building where she was discovered, Helen comments: ‘It’s cold now, in November, so it must’ve been freezing. Even though the building’s changed, I can see what could’ve happened.
Becoming tearful, she adds: ‘Knowing that somebody, maybe my birth parents, that somebody was here, and they left me here. Must have been a horrible reason for them to do it.’
The only keepsakes from her start in life Helen has to hold onto are the name tag she was given as a baby for ‘Gill Scarsdale,’ named after the hospital and the nurse who looked after her, and some photos of her taken with the maternity nurses.
Long Lost Family researchers trace two of these nurses, Gill and Susan, and Helen is reunited with them for the first time in over 30 years.
The only keepsakes from her start in life Helen has to hold onto are the name tag (pictured) she was given as a baby for ‘Gill Scarsdale,’ named after the hospital and the nurse who looked after her, and some photos of her taken with the maternity nurses
Long Lost Family researchers trace two of these nurses, Gill and Susan, and Helen is reunited with them for the first time in over 30 years. Pictured left to right, nurses Daphne, Sue and Gill who cared for baby Helen after she was found
In an emotional meeting, the duo (pictured) share their memories of Helen’s first days while at the hospital
In an emotional meeting, the duo share their memories of Helen’s first days while at the hospital.
But Helen is left still wanting to meet some of her biological relatives, saying: ‘I still want to know where I come from and who my birth parents are and why they left me’.
Thankfully, the team, through DNA testing, is able to find Helen’s maternal half-sister Jess, from Elton, Northamptonshire, who is also a foundling, having been abandoned as a baby.
The team, through DNA testing, is able to find Helen’s maternal half-sister Jess (pictured right), from Elton, Northamptonshire, who is also a foundling, having been abandoned as a baby
The two, after taking Covid tests, safely meet at a nearby venue, with both (pictured) becoming emotional as they share their stories and swap family photos
The two, after taking Covid tests, safely meet at a nearby venue, with both becoming emotional as they share their stories and swap family photos.
Over the last four years, the team behind Long Lost Family has combined cutting-edge genetic genealogy with DNA testing technology to try to help more than 30 foundlings unlock the secrets of their past.
The stories in this new series span five decades: from a woman left over 70 years ago on a luggage rack on a train in Paddington station, to a young man left in toilets near a football stadium in Wolverhampton as recently as 1989.
Long Lost Family Born Without Trace is on tonight, tomorrow night and Wednesday night at 9pm on ITV
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