April Paul, 32, who was found abandoned in a West London telephone box as a newborn in 1994, now meets her rescuer Joe Campbell nearly every week and considers him family. Despite this close bond, she believes she will never receive the answers she seeks from her birth mother.
A Newborn Found in a Phone Box
April was discovered on April 30, 1994, in a phone box with her umbilical cord still attached. Joe Campbell, then 62, found her after initially thinking he saw 'a bag of chips'. He called police, and April was subsequently adopted by a family three years later.
During her childhood, Joe was prevented from contacting April by the Child Protection Service (CPS), but he never forgot about her. In 2016, at the age of 22, April launched a campaign to be reunited with her rescuer. After seeing her appeal in the news, Joe stepped forward, and the pair have since built a deep relationship.
Reunion and Family Bond
April, a bank worker from West London, describes Joe as "complete family." She told Talk to the Press: "It's like I was adopted again but in the right way this time around. His kids are my siblings now. We're so close, we stay at each other's houses. He never stopped thinking about me. I don't know what this man is – an angel."
The pair now see each other nearly every week, with April referring to Joe as her "guardian angel." Their bond has flourished since their 2016 reunion, and Joe's children are like siblings to her.
Search for Birth Mother Remains Unresolved
Around the same time as her reunion with Joe, April also attempted to reconnect with her birth mother. She managed to visit her home in 2016 and had a brief conversation, but has not heard from her since.
A decade on, April says "realistically" she will never obtain the answers she needs from her mother. She told Talk to the Press: "The truth is I absolutely do still want answers from my mum. I think a part of me probably always will. I wish more than anything that I could understand why she left me and have the answers to questions I've carried around my whole life. But realistically, I don't think I'm ever going to get those answers from her."
Continuing Impact and Support
April added: "Continuing to search and holding onto the hope that I might eventually get them is actually causing me more hurt. My daughter said to me the other day, 'Mum, how do you know how to be a mum when you never had one?' I said, 'it's just natural, you know that.' She said, 'why couldn't your mum be your mum?' I just said, 'I don't know'."
Joe's support remains constant. April recounted: "Three weeks ago Joe had knee surgery as he'd been struggling at work with his knees for years. He put off the operation as he couldn't not work for his kids and stuff. He'd just had operation anyway and his kids had planned to come over to my house for dinner. Joe turned up limping after his operation – he wasn't even supposed to be there." She added: "I said 'what are you doing here?' Of course he brought me loads of shopping, gifts and perfume. He's the type of man you would call in the middle of the night and he would come straight away."
April is now raising funds to help Joe enjoy an early retirement, with a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe.
