'I got a DNA kit for Christmas - it revealed a family secret kept for 50 years'

After receiving a kit for 2021 from pals, Tony* had no idea that the well-intentioned present would change his forever.

Tony initially forgot about the gift but decided to give it a go a couple of months later, in February 2022, sending off a sample for resting. When the results came back, Tony realised something was amiss, with his family tree showing a sister named Claire*, rather than the sister he'd known all his life, Jessica*.

The following morning, Tony reached out to Claire via the company’s private messaging service, initially wondering whether a mistake had been made. Claire had also been gifted the same kit by her son two years previously and had also noticed some unusual results, including a first cousin she couldn't account for.

Things got even stranger when, in 2022, she had a notification telling her that a full sibling had joined her family tree. After chatting back and forth for a while, Tony and Claire, who are both from the West Midlands, realised Claire and Tony's sister Jessica had been born around the same time and at the same hospital, in 1967, more than 50 years before.

It was then that the terrible truth started to dawn on them both - Claire and Jessica had been switched at birth.

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Their story has now been explored in BBC Sounds podcast , with the first episode airing on BBC Radio 4 at 09:30, on Wednesday, November, 6. In the podcast, listeners hear from Tony's 83-year-old mother Joan, who recalled the emotional moment she met her biological daughter for the first time.

Joan revealed: "It just felt right. We hugged each other. I thought, 'She looks just like I did in my younger days'. I just felt connected straight away with her. It was remarkable. I feel I've gained a daughter."

Sadly, Joan had suffered through the losses of two stillborn daughters before welcoming Jessica, making her reunion with Claire all the more poignant. Joan shared: "I had endured the loss of two stillborn daughters. When I do get a baby girl, it's the wrong one. I wanted to know if she’d had a good life, if she was happy, if she was well."

Claire had never felt a sense of belonging during her 'very difficult childhood', explaining: "I felt like an imposter. There were no similarities, in looks or traits. I thought, 'yes – I'm adopted'." When she met Joan - who she now refers to as 'mum' - she felt an 'immediate' bond.

Claire remembered: "We just embraced and we sobbed. And I looked at [Joan] and I said: 'Oh my god, I've got your eyes. We have the same eyes. Oh my god, I look like someone'. It was so bizarre, like we'd always known each other."

Jessica declined to be involved with the podcast. Her own biological mother passed away this year after refusing to accept that Jessica was her daughter. Joan said: "It doesn't matter how much we said 'nothing has changed', Jessica's response every time was, 'everything has changed'. She's still my daughter, and always will be."

As explained in the podcast, at the time Claire and Jessica were born, babies were taken away on the first night of their lives, to allow their mums some rest. Before the introduction of radio frequency identification tags found on modern maternity wards, written tags and labelled cots were used to tell newborn infants apart, however - as this case shows - such measures weren't always reliable.

It's believed that Claire and Jessica were switched accidentally on this particular evening, without their parents knowing. The unidentified hospital trust in question has admitted full responsibility for the error but has been unable to provide further information on the matter as its records don't date back that far.

Resolution, which deals with legal claims told the that both families had received apologies and that the health service was now working to establish how much compensation should be paid out in what has been described as a 'unique and complex case'.

* Names have been changed to protect their identities.

You can listen to The Gift: Switched on BBC Sounds .

Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com

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