JOIN USA British mother won a 75,000-pound jackpot at a TV game show and used the amount to be reunited with her son who remained untraced for 45 years in Australia.
Dawn Harkins, 61, went on the TV game show -- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? -- hoping to raise enough cash to see the child she gave up for adoption as a six week-old baby, The Sun reported Tuesday.
She was 15 when she gave birth at a time when it was taboo to be a single young woman with an illegitimate child. Her parents agreed that her baby should be adopted. She could spend barely six weeks with him before the infant was taken away.
Harkins went on to marry and have two more children. But she could never forget her first child. It was her daughter, Samantha, 41, who tracked Glyn down last year through adoption forms and detective work. She found he was living 10,000 miles away on the other side of the world.
Having won the game show, she immediately booked her flight Down Under to meet son Glyn in Brisbane, Australia.
Harkins, who runs a tea shop in Anglesey, North Wales, said: "I never thought I’d see my son again so it’s amazing to actually be out here. No mum ever forgets their (her) child and I’m so glad I got the chance to meet Glyn and to give him a great big hug.
“I might not have gone home a millionaire but this trip is worth more than that anyway. I feel like the richest woman in the world,” said Harkins, a grandmother-of-six.