Long-lost brother and sister meet for the first time

Gill Thompson, 73, didn't know about her dad Colin Bardsley - until she received a Christmas card from her paternal granddad when she was 25.

She found out he had moved to Cape Town, South Africa, remarried and had a son called Michael Bardsley - but she couldn't find him after her initial searches in the late 90s.

Gran-of-four Gill was prompted to renew her search in August last year when an opponent at her bowls tournament had the same name.

Gill's daughter Sammy, 31, was able to track him down on LinkedIn - knowing it was her half-brother because of the family nose.

Michael, 64, and Gill met for the first time at Colwyn Bay railway station on June 8.

Gill, a retired PE teacher from Llandudno, North Wales, said: "I felt very emotional as I watched Mike's train coming in.

"We embraced as only long-lost brother and sister could do.

"We had a happy evening catching up on a lifetime of memories."

Michael, a sports film producer from Cape Town, South Africa, said: "I saw the joy on my sister's face and a flood of emotion and memories of my dad kicked in.

"As we hugged the reality sank in - after a lifetime apart I was now holding on to my closest living relative.

"It was worth every mile of the frustrating journey of cancelled trains."
Gill's parents - Joyce Priestley and Colin Bardsley - married in 1952 after finding they were expecting Gill, but separated before she was born, then divorced.

Gill said: "I just never knew anything about him. I never asked and mum never said.

"I was just happy and I never thought about it.

"Other kids at school talked about 'mummy and daddy', I just said 'I don't have a daddy', for me it was 'mummy and nanna', that was normal."

After Joyce died aged 56 in 1986, Gill found a photo of her parents' wedding - and saw her dad's face for the first time.

She said: "It felt as though mum wanted me to find it eventually.

"I was amazed and excited to see it.

"He looks quite like me."

Gill, also mum to Nick, 34, found out her dad had remarried and had a son called Michael when she got her first computer at home 27 years ago and began searching for births, marriages and deaths in hopes of finding him.

But as her husband at the time, Ian Hainey, was unwell with oesophageal cancer before eventually passing away in 2004 she didn't take the search further.

Thirty years on, and now married to Peter Thompson, 79, Gill found out they were playing against a Michael Bardsley in the Colwyn Bay Crown-Green Bowls Festival in August 2025.

It wasn't Gill's half-brother but it sparked Gill's daughter Sammy's interest.

Sammy found a LinkedIn profile for a sports film producer Michael Bardsley living in Cape Town, and sent him a DM including her phone number.

Gill said: "Sammy was sure it was him. She said we have the same nose.

"It's the same nose my dad had, and my son has it too."

Sammy got a phone call from Michael in September.

Gill and Michael were then able to chat on FaceTime for half an hour.

Michael had known his dad had another child, but didn't have enough information to find her.

Gill said: "I was so excited and nervous.

"He said 'this is the most wonderful thing ever', and it was.

"We talked for ages. We both laugh a lot, and we're both into sport, and both work in sport."

Gill learned her dad had a sister with three children - their cousins Jacqueline, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Nicola, from Northwich, Cheshire, and Alison, from London.

Gill and Michael now text every week, and FaceTime every fortnight.

He stayed with Gill for two weeks in June - and the pair met up with their cousins too.

Gill, who shared the story on Sell Us Your Story, said: "We're both delighted.

"This wouldn't have been possible at all without the Internet."