Wigan man discovers long lost family members on TV show

The popular programme, Long Lost Family, continued into series 12 as episode three aired this week with the story of Roy Sibblies, a 52-year-old from Wigan, who spent his childhood not knowing that the woman bringing him up was not his biological mother.

With the help from a team of trained intermediaries, DNA experts and investigators, Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall set out to find Roy’s family.

Roy had a happy childhood with his black Jamaican dad, Eccleston, and his white British mum, Joan.

But as a young man, when signing papers to join the Navy, he needed his birth certificate and it was at that point when Eccelston explained that “your mum Joan isn’t actually your mum”.

Eccelston explained that Roy’s birth mother, a lady called Janet with whom who he’d had a relationship as a young man, did not want to give Roy up, but she was living with her parents and they, due to the social attitudes of the 1960s, felt concerned about a young, interracial couple raising a child.

Eccleston was adamant that his son would not go to someone else.

Instead, he raised him and when he met Joan and married, they brought Roy up together.

In the episode, Roy said: “To give a baby up because of…the colour of their skin…That cuts really, really deep to the core.

"It’s important for me to know whether she regrets her decision.”

Upon this discovery, Roy began to search for Janet, but without much information he struggled.

Sadly, Janet died in 2019 but the team managed to find two siblings, Jo and Dan, who explained that their mother had felt pressure from her parents and did indeed regret giving Roy up.

They had always known about him, and remember “on Roy’s birthday every year, she always used to say, “happy birthday” and she told everyone that she had three children.

Jo and Dan are excited to continue to share the memories of their mother with Roy.