‘I tried to track down my father and Jamaican roots – I found so much more’
Growing up in a small village in West Sussex, Rachel Burch felt like she didn’t quite fit in.
As the only person of mixed race in a middle-class village, she was picked-on at school, a time she remembers involved ‘lots of bullying and name-calling’.
The NHS operating theatre practitioner, 50, was raised by her mum and stepfather John, but always wanted to know more about her birth father.
All the details she knew about him for many years was that he was from Jamaica and that the last time she saw him was when she was 18-months-old.
‘I really wanted to know about my family heritage because I had never known my dad or my paternal side of the family,’ she told Metro.co.uk.
‘I couldn’t remember him because my mum raised us, and I was young [when he left].
‘But I felt like there was always something missing.’
She always felt finding out more about her father would allow her to fill in the puzzle pieces of her heritage.
‘I felt I had missed out and wanted to know who I looked like and where I came from and that side of the family,’ she explained.
‘Being brought up in a white western family I really wanted to know about my Jamaican roots.’
While Rachel tried to find out more when she was a teenager, she hit several dead ends, and put her search on hold.
Years later, when she was looking to adopt or foster children with her husband Clive, she needed her birth father’s name for the forms.
It was at that point her mother gave her the information she’d been waiting for – Errol Dawson was her dad.
But preoccupied with wanting to focus on looking forward with her own family, Rachel wasn’t ready to dive back decades and find out more about the man she’d had so many questions about.
Eventually, she turned to Long Lost Family, and what they discovered was beyond anything she thought might have been uncovered.
While the search for her father proved fruitful, it came with the sad news that he had died two decades earlier, when he was just 52 years old.
Presented with a photograph of Errol as a young man, Rachel was able to see the resemblance.
‘I’ve got his shaped face, I think, and his nose as well…Bless him. It’s amazing – that’s half of me. The hair, the face…part of my identity,’ she said.
But a surprise came when the team told her they had also tracked down her sister, someone she never knew existed.
‘I was just overwhelmed – it was just the best news,’ she said.
‘Although it was definitely a shock too, after all that time of not knowing.’
Sian Evans, 28, grew up without having ever met Errol, whom she only discovered was her biological dad a few years ago after a DNA test proved the man she thought had been her father was not.
‘I was really shocked and taken aback by the whole situation,’ she explained about being contacted by ITV to alert her to the search the show was undertaking, and the news that she had a sister.
Within just a few days, the sisters had met.
Despite it being ‘sad and a waste’ to have missed out on so many years together, it was like no time had passed once they connected.
‘I couldn’t stop thinking about her and wanted to meet her right away, but it was strange because I was meeting a complete stranger,’ Rachel explained.
‘It was odd because I am quite a sceptical person, but it was just like an instant feeling and connection, and I was overwhelmed at how I felt [when we met].’
For Sian, she had a similar feeling.
‘I was nervous about if we would get along and if she would like me, but as soon as they told me about her, I wanted to meet her straight away,’ she said.
‘That was actually really weird to me because people I’ve met in my life, it takes me awhile to build a relationship with someone, but when I met her I loved her right away and that’s never happened before.’
While the sisters live a five-hour drive away from each other, they’ve met up several more times since the cameras stopped rolling and have plans to spend time together with their families in the summer holidays.
Despite still having some unanswered questions about her father, Rachel insisted she has no regrets about turning to the show for help.
‘It changed my life. It’s made me feel more complete,’ she said.
‘I also never knew what my dad looked like and now I have a photo of him…I’m also now really interested to find out more about his upbringing and his family.’
‘I know that will be quite difficult, but at least I have a few leads now…’
Meanwhile her younger sister is incredibly grateful to Rachel for taking that first step.
‘I thought I’d put my relationship with my dad and who he was to bed but obviously I hadn’t, and I think this has given me a lot of closure and made me better as a person. I know who I am now.’
Long Lost Family airs tonight at 9pm on ITV.
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