A father has thanked the Borehamwood & Elstree Times for helping reunite him with his daughter 28 years after she left their Borehamwood home.

Michael Wickes, 51, has spent the past 28 years searching for his child who suddenly left the family home in Manor Way with her mother when she was just six months old.

Believing Mr Wickes had been killed in a biking accident when she was a baby, Bonny Wickes grew up with her mother in Hereford before settling in Bath ten years ago.

But seven weeks ago her grandfather told her the truth from his hospital bed and Miss Wickes began the arduous task of finding her long-lost father.

Armed only with the address they shared nearly three decades earlier, Miss Wickes placed an advert in this newspaper in the hope that it might lead her to some answers.

And within days Mr Wickes, who now lives in Thrift Farm Lane and is the caretaker at Hertswood School, made contact with his daughter.

She said: “I was driving to work and my mobile rang so I pulled over and the man on the other end just told me he was my father.

“I burst into tears. It was just the most amazing feeling. It was just unbelievable.

“Everybody told me placing the advert would be a long shot but I had to do something and this was the last option I had.”

Mr Wickes added: “I had been searching everywhere for her and was coming up blank.”

“One of my friends spotted it in the paper and phoned me straight away and told me to look and when I saw it I thought it was a wind up because I had been searching all my life.

“I called her and it was so emotional and I just had to go down to meet her.”

The pair were reunited in Bath last month where Bonny also met her half brother, 21-year-old Christen, and have since arranged further visits to Borehamwood.

Mr Wickes said: “Meeting her was how it should be. Emotional but such a good day. How do you catch up on 28 years? You just do your best. I am still on cloud nine.

“She said she never got married because she didn’t have a dad to walk her down the aisle.

“I just want to say thank you to the paper for helping me to find my daughter.”