Dave Green and Andrea Urmston had been firm friends for two years when a casual chat about fostering turned their world upside down. The pair, who worked at Manchester Airport – Dave as a bus station supervisor, Andrea servicing vending machines – had bonded over motorbikes and often finished each other's sentences. Then one day, Dave mentioned he was adopted and his birth name was Stuart Proudlove.
Andrea froze. Her maiden name was Proudlove and she had a brother who was adopted before she was born. "It's not a very popular name and it had to be him," she told the BBC. She rang her mother, Susan, to check the birth date: 24 March 1966. It matched Dave's. "I said 'it's got to be you, it's got to be you'," Andrea recalled.
“Two colleagues at Manchester Airport discovered they were brother and sister after a two-year friendship and an adoption revelation.”
They drove to Susan's house in Altrincham, Trafford. As they travelled, Dave realised his old bus route had taken him right past his mother's home and the school Andrea attended – he had been within touching distance for years without knowing. Susan had tried to find him with the help of the Salvation Army but got nowhere. Andrea had promised her mother, as a child, that she would find her brother one day.
When they finally met, there were lots of tears and hugs. "I couldn't believe that I'd got my brother and my mum together, it was amazing," said Andrea. Dave, who learned he was adopted at age 10 and enjoyed a happy childhood, said: "People don't meet like that, it's not what happens in everyday life, but ours are not everyday lives any more."
The siblings discovered they share the same tastes – taking their tea the same way and loving "tomato sauce butties". A photograph of Dave as a baby sat on both his and Susan's mantelpieces. Dave reflected: "I have always thought it's not what you have in your life it's who you have in your life. Somebody or something gave me the thumbs up that day and things will never be the same again."