8 hours ago
Man abandoned as a baby in a Co-Op plastic bag inside a public toilet with placenta still attached to him finally meets his birth siblings after 40 years
A man who was abandoned by his birth mother just moments after being born was left near-speechless after meeting his half-siblings for the first time.
40-year-old Jon Scarlett-Phillips was found in the toilet of a leisure centre car park in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, in September, 1984. He was wrapped in a blanket and placed inside a Co-Op shopping bag with his placenta still attached.
Luckily, three teenage girls found him and called for help to get him an ambulance and further medical support.
'I was found by three girls,' Jon said in ITV 's Long Lost Family: Born Without a Trace, adding, 'Finding something like that at that age is absolutely crazy. I'm grateful, very grateful that they heard me and found me. They're the ones that saved my life.'
Jon, who now works as a chef in Wiltshire, was left without a note, and was later adopted by loving parents, John and Marilyn, and big sister, Debbie.
For many years, he avoided thinking about his beginnings. 'I didn't want to search for a very long time,' he said on the show's upcoming episode, which airs on Wednesday at 9pm.
Jon, while outside the public toilets where he was left, added, 'It's hard, it's hard to deal with,' adding, 'The question is still there: Why did she do it?'
In his quest for answers, Jon contacted the Long Lost Family team, and in a whirlwind episode, he was finally able to solve some of the mysteries surrounding his life after meeting his birth siblings.
Despite Jon having a positive childhood, he was prone to emotional outbursts throughout his adolescence.
He explained, 'I had a really good childhood. I always knew I was a foundling. But when you're a kid, it messes with you and you rebel against everything and anyone.'
'I had a lot of anger issues, a lot of emptiness, and when you feel empty, you don't know how to fill that.'
When Jon was 15, his adoptive mother sadly suffered a serious accident that left her with brain damage.
In the aftermath of the accident, Jon 'went off the rails', and turned to substance abuse for a few years after.
After a near overdose when he was 18, Jon never turned to drugs again. He later trained as a chef and now lives and works in Wiltshire with his wife Becky and their 17-year-old son.
'She's the one that stabilised me [and] stopped me from making silly decisions in life. I used to push people away, and then she decided to push through that barrier. He added, 'I have my own family, they fill my gap, they fill emptiness.'
It was Becky who finally gave Jon enough encouragement for him to seek answers about his past.
Because Jon had no paper trail leading him to any birth family, the Long Lost Family started their search by DNA.
But before the team's search progressed any further, Jon received an update of his own.
He had uploaded his DNA to an ancestry website before he came on the show, and during filming, he received a match from his biological father, who was on the website to seek information about his own past.
'I was at work and an email came through on my phone,' Jon told co-host Nicky Campbell, adding, 'It said you have a close match - father. I was a bit shell shocked.'
His birth father and his wife gave him few details, including that he'd spent one weekend with a woman who he assumed was Jon's birth mother.
Jon had no direct contact with his birth father, and instead spoke to him via his wife. The communication between them was brief and did not continue.
He said, 'I've always felt that if people want a relationship with me, that's for them to approach me. I suppose that's because I'm a foundling, I've always handled rejection quite hard.'
Meanwhile, Long Lost Family's Ariel Bruce made a series of discoveries about Jon's birth mother. Ariel learned that she was still alive, her location, and that she was not the woman his birth father assumed she would be.
Jon's birth mother was 20 at the time she had him, her marriage had recently ended, and she had two very young daughters when she found herself pregnant again.
'I suspect she surprisingly found herself pregnant with Jon, and I think she couldn't cope. When she left him, she was mentally in a very bad place,' Ariel said.
The birth mother's husband isn't Jon's birth father and she kept the pregnancy a secret from her family.
When she left Jon, she was in a very bad place. She's not yet ready to meet him, but his two half-sisters, who are very supportive of their mother, wanted to meet him as soon as possible.
In an emotional scene, Jon read out the letter that his birth sisters had given to him via Davina.
The letter read, 'To our long lost brother Jon. We are writing this letter to express to you how delighted we are to learn that you have a brother.
'Finding out about you has been a complete rollercoaster of emotions. Initially, we were heartbroken and devastated to find out how many years we had missed together. However, as emotions settled, we were left with such happiness.'
'We realise that learning about us today will be a shock to you, but we want you to know that you have a family, and we will try and help you piece everything together as much as we can.
'We have 40 years to catch up on and a very long bucket list. We would like you to know you have two loving sisters wanting to be a part of your life. We are so looking forward to meeting you.'
After reading the letter, a near-speechless Jon said, 'Wow, that's amazing. It's a whirl of emotions. It's like a tornado going off at the moment.'
In a heartwarming final scene, Jon finally met his birth sisters for the first time. Their names and faces were hidden to protect their mother's identity.
Jon and his birth siblings instantly connected, and despite not growing up together, they share multiple interests.
His mother also sent a message for their meet-up, which read, 'Hi, I've sent this message to the girls so they can let you know the reasons why I'm not with them today.
'Unfortunately, I feel unable, both physically and mentally, to come today following a long period of illness.'
She added that she's struggling with feelings of guilt and shame, and that she needs to process them before going any further.
After reading the note, one of his birth sisters said, 'It's not a no Jon, it's just time.'
The experience proved to be positive for Jon, who told his half-sisters that he holds no grudges.
He said, 'I feel a lot lighter. I feel a bit more full, as well. That emptiness has disappeared completely now. I'm a happy man.'
