'It's just a shame mum couldn't see us meet'

Half brothers Mark Thorpe (L) and Martin (R) were put in touch with one another through Long Lost Family

When Mark Thorpe was a small child, he remembers sleeping in his mother's bed, and waking up to a black and white photograph of a baby on her dresser.

Deep down, Mr Thorpe knew the infant was not him, or his brother, who also lived in the house.

Eventually, Diane, Mr Thorpe's mother, shared that the baby was another, older brother. But getting any more information out of her, he said, was like "getting blood out of a stone".

When Diane died in 2023, Mr Thorpe decided it was time to find his brother, and got in touch with Long Lost Family, the ITV show hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell. He was then connected with Martin, who had been adopted by a family in Gloucestershire.

He also learned that his mother was forced to put the baby up for adoption because she was unmarried and the baby's father was not interested.

All Martin, now 55, knew was that he was born in or around Norwich.

"Throughout my life, I've known absolutely nothing; it was 1969, adoption was very complicated and very frowned upon," he said.

Martin discovered he was adopted at a young age, and said he "couldn't have wished for a better adoptive family", but considered trying to find his birth mother "many times".

Meanwhile, Mr Thorpe, 44, said it "bugged him" when he was younger that his older brother was not there.

Their mother died in 2023 without meeting Martin

"It haunted [mum] all her life really... she had a tattoo of [the photograph] in later life on her arm and a massive canvas blown up in the living room," Mark said.

"There would be little signs, she would watch programmes like Surprise Surprise and at the end, she'd cry her eyes out at people who got reunited."

Mark said he applied to Long Lost Family a few days after Diane died.

Eleven months later, the show contacted him to offer help, and, ultimately, he was united with Martin.

This photograph of Martin as a baby was kept on Diane's dresser and, eventually, tattooed onto her arm

"It never even crossed my mind that I might have siblings," Martin said.

"When I heard about the tattoo on the arm, that broke me.

"I just wish I could give her a hug but I can't do anything about it, can I?"

Mark said his first meeting with Martin was "so surreal".

Mr Thorpe, pictured here with Long Lost Family presenter Davina McCall, said he has "brilliant conversations" with Martin

"It pulled time together... there's me as a little child, looking at this black and white photo," he said.

"Then, all of a sudden... he's coming up to me and we're having a bear hug.

"It's just a shame mum couldn't see that but you have to take in it's meant to happen when it's meant to happen."

Mark added he and Martin have a similar sense of humour, and have "some absolutely brilliant conversations, sometimes in the early hours of the morning".