A man in Wales has uncovered long-awaited answers about his biological family—nearly six decades after being found as a newborn outside a bathroom at a children’s home.
Simon Prothero recently shared his emotional journey on the U.K. television show Long Lost Family, recounting how he was discovered in late summer 1966 in the town of Neath. Though adopted and raised in a village just 10 miles from where he was abandoned, the details of his earliest days remained a mystery.
Growing up, his adoptive parents—both of whom have since passed away—told him what they knew: that he had been found as an infant outside a bathroom. But the unanswered questions lingered.
“I don’t know where I was born, when I was born, what the circumstances were. I don’t know who my mother is,” Prothero said during the episode.
His search for truth intensified after the loss of his wife, Helen, who died of cancer in September 2024, just nine months after her diagnosis. The couple had been married since 1997 and shared three children.
“It is hard, to be honest with you. But she’d want me to carry it out, she would,” Prothero reflected.
Through DNA testing, Prothero was linked to a large extended family from North Wales. Among them was a man named Noel, who agreed to undergo DNA testing to confirm a possible biological connection.
The show’s research team eventually identified Prothero’s birth mother—still alive and now in her 80s. However, she was not ready to meet him, as explained during the broadcast.
Although Noel’s family had ties to Neath, near where Prothero had been found, his biological mother was not originally from the area. At the time of his birth, she was young, single, and unsupported—facing the daunting reality of motherhood alone. She was not in a relationship with Prothero’s birth father.
“I would like to meet her. But I mean, obviously, at the moment, it’s not to be; so it’s not to be,” Prothero said, accepting her decision.
While his mother declined contact, Noel and three generations of his family embraced Prothero. They even unearthed an old photo believed to show his mother as a child—with red hair, just like Simon once had.
Noel and other older relatives recalled hosting family members from North Wales in years past, though their memories were limited—another detail highlighted during the episode.
Meeting both younger and older members of his extended family was deeply meaningful for Prothero. “It’ll probably take a day to go around them all. I’ve had a few answers. I’d like to have a few more, but it’s been good. It has been a good day,” he shared.
