A birth mother is urgently seeking her adopted son to warn him of an inherited medical condition that can be fatal if left untreated.

Her son was born in March 1964 in Middlesex at the home of a family friends who had a 15-year old adopted daughter. The wife was from Spain and the father was English. The baby was adopted two weeks after being born by a Mormon couple who may have lived in London or Middlesex.

The boy's birth mother, who now lives in the US and who did not want to be named, has tried unsuccessfully, to locate him through the Mormon church and social service agencies connected with adoptions.

"I have tried every avenue I can to find him. I really thought the Mormon church would have a record of his adoption, but they don't," she told Adoption-net. "If only I had registered his birth myself. I don't even know if my name is on the birth certificate.

"I did love him and didn't want to give him up for adoption, but had no choice at that time," she added.

Eighteen months ago she discovered she had an incurable inherited genetic condition called hemochromatosis which causes the body to store and overload on iron.

Since being diagnosed, she has had to have her left hip replaced, a finger fused, surgery on her wrist, and has recently discovered she has a slight heart abnormality.

Left untreated, hemochromatosis affects the joints and can damage the heart and liver and cause cancer. The only treatment for it is blood-letting.

Her son, and any children he may have, could have inherited this condition but a DNA test will reveal if he or his children are at risk. The children of a person with the condition usually carry one of the genes, but their children can actually have it.

But if her son's father also had the condition, he will have inherited it.

A friend who knew the family that adopted her son - but who she has been unable to find - sent her a photograph (below) of her son when he was about two or three. He is pictured, on the left, with the couple's natural son and a daughter they adopted.

Anyone who may recognise the photograph is asked to contact us.