A FATHER believes he is on the verge of being reunited with his long-lost daughter as a result of a Gazette appeal to trace her.

Simon Mayne, 54, reached out to the daughter he didn’t know he had until he found out about her on Facebook.

Production engineer Mr Mayne had a brief relationship with a woman named Susan in Southend in 1988.

He was never told she’d had a child as a result, but had his suspicions, after seeing her pushing a pram.

However, the years passed and Mr Mayne carried on his life not thinking he might be a father.

Then he saw some posts on Facebook and appealed through the Gazette and our south Essex sister paper, the Echo, for information about his daughter.

After his story appeared on Monday, Mr Mayne, of Cambridge Road, Colchester, was inundated with messages.

One of them was from a Southend woman named Samantha, who he now believes to be his daughter.

Mr Mayne said: “It’s gone absolutely mental. I’ve spoken to a lady who could be my daughter.

“When the story came out, it went mad in Southend and Samantha had all her friends showing her it.

“We’ve spoken for hours and hours on the phone and a lot of it adds up quite well.

I’m fairly confident she’s my daughter.”

Mr Mayne and 26-year-old Samantha have yet to meet but hope to get a DNA test carried out as soon as possible.

He said: “We’re planning to do the test and meet up, hopefully as soon as we can.

“It came across very quickly that Samantha is genuine, We have been discussing all we can to try and join up the dots.

“She knows very little about her mum, as she died nine years ago, so I really hope this all works out.”

The pair have spent hours on the phone and have exchanged photos of each other, as they try to make up for lost time.

Mr Mayne, who has no other children, has also discovered he may be a grandfather, too.

Mr Mayne said: “I might have a grandson as well.

“It’s been quite overwhelming.

I’ve seen photos of Samantha and she looks quite similar to me, so we shall soon see.

“I can’t thank the Gazette enough. You’ve done me a huge favour.”