IT'S no surprise to us that Simon Hawkins' search for his long-lost natural mother produced a positive result so soon after he appealed for help in Saturday's Evening News.

We know that you, our readers, like a challenge as much as a happy ending - and you've met one and found the other in familiar style.

Within hours of his story arriving on the news-stands, calls were flooding an uncle's Worcester phone.

It was a bolt from the blue, and Simon's search could have ended there. But it didn't.

None of us should underestimate the courage which it took for the 32-year-old to begin his search, positive that he knew what he wanted but almost certainly ignorant of what he might find on the way.

And picking the phone up to call his Portsmouth number was no small act for Alan Hawkins either.

What details we're able to bring you today, while the newly-extended family comes to terms with its discovery, hardly begin to tell Simon's story, or his mother's.

They've already begun to fill in the missing years since he was adopted as a baby - the heartbreak of missing the deadline of an adoption 'cooling off' period; a sister's effort to find Simon which faltered in the face of nerves and red tape; the call to the Evening News which, finally, allowed you to make the connection.

If their experience provides a timely reminder to all of us who've enjoyed more stable circumstances in our lives, it's that the bonds of the family are broken at our peril.

The lure for both parts of the once-separated Hawkins family was strong enough to make their reunion happen. That's proof enough.

The coming weeks are going to be a long journey for them as they make up for lost time.

As those of you who spotted a likeness between Simon and his Uncle Alan will do, we wish them well in their voyage of rediscovery.