A woman has been reunited with her mother thanks to a single phonecall.

A Peterlee woman has been reunited with her 72-year-old mother who gave her up for adoption.

Jennifer Kelly's mum Sylvia Dawson was forced to give her baby up when she was just seven months old.

But now the pair have been reunited and Jennifer has discovered she has 58 new relations she did not know about including four brothers, three sisters and 16 nieces and nephews.

Jennifer had been given a different name for Sylvia leading her to be unsuccessful in her search which encompassed the Sunderland Echo and the internet.

Her brother Christopher found out about Jennifer when his gran confided in him as she was dying.

He then hired a private detective to find Jennifer and she received a phone call out of the blue to say that her mum had been found.

Jennifer said: "It was the most wonderful moment of my life. I started to cry."

Both women were apprehensive about meeting after so many years apart but according to Jennifer the meeting couldn't have been better.

"We were both terrified we would be rejected by the other. I'm not very confident and I've had lots of knockbacks in my life, but this was the best time of my life," Jennifer said.

"In less than a week I've got a whole new family. We've got a lot of catching up to do," Jennifer continued.