A 70-YEAR-OLD who has never met her parents has decided it is never too late to search for her real mum and dad

A 70-YEAR-OLD who has never met her parents has decided it is never too late to search for her real mum and dad.

Pensioner Diane Elsmore is trying to track down her birth mother and any step-siblings she may have in Weston in the hope of meeting them before she dies.

Diane, who was named Sheila Harroway on her birth certificate, was raised by two people who did not formerly adopt her.

She was told her mother, who was a hairdresser, was about 17 or 18 years old when she found out she was pregnant. Because she was unmarried, she asked another couple to bring baby Diane up.

Diane, who was also a hairdresser, still has her birth certificate and her mother is named as Alsace Coombes, although Diane was told she was known as Alma.

The Highbridge resident said: "I'm told she lived with an elderly aunt and having a baby when you weren't married wasn't the done thing in those days.

"My parents, the people who actually raised me, met my real mother when she handed me over. She worked as a hairdresser in Weston and was a friend of my mother's sister-in-law.

"I have tried looking in library documents and put an advert in a magazine but I would really like to speak to any family I might have before I die.

"The parents who raised me did not have any other children, so I don't know if they chose to look after me because they could not get pregnant. I was never told why the adoption wasn't made formal either."

The parents who raised Diane have now died, but they told her they thought her father's name might be Lesley Harroway.

Diane was born in Westonzoyland near Bridgwater and lived in Bristol, Gloucester and Taunton before moving to Highbridge.

Diane, who lives in South Crescent, added: "I do not want to upset anyone as I don't know if my real mother would have told her partner or any other children she may have had, but it would be really nice to meet her."

* If you think you may be related to Diane, email newsdesk@thewestonmercury.co.uk