A PENSIONER has been reunited with her long lost brother after she was inspired to search for him by a BBC radio show – and is now sharing her emotional journey on the same show.

Brenda Moorhouse, from Urmston, was adopted as a baby in 1947. When she was 15, her parents told her about the adoption and suggested that she might have a brother called Barry.

The 68-year-old made no attempt to find out more until hearing the Becky Want show on BBC Radio Manchester two years ago.

“I think it was about two sisters about my age finding their brother and I never forgot that,” she said. “It was those two sisters who did it themselves and found their brother and they inspired me.”

Having tracked her brother, Barry Wright, down to Ocean City, Maryland in the United States, Brenda had no response from him after her first attempt to contact him.

So BBC Radio Manchester put Brenda in touch with After Adoption who suggested she write to him again, this time enclosing a memory stick of an earlier interview she had done on Becky’s show so Barry could understand exactly how she felt.

Brenda faced an anxious wait before Barry’s wife got in touch. Then, after having had no contact with her brother for more than 60 years, Barry reached out.

“It was overwhelming really, that is the word that covers it all,” said Brenda, who Facetimed Barry.

“I knew now that I looked like someone. I looked like somebody and I was absolutely overwhelmed and delighted and it was worth everything to have got to that point.”

That first conversation took place over five weeks ago and Brenda and Barry are now in regular contact.

Brenda has four children and eight grandchildren and her family are now in touch with Barry’s children and grandchildren on social media.

The duo speak every day via Facetime and Barry is planning a visit to England in April.

Brenda said: “It was hard work and it was very upsetting because the brick wall was there so often but it’s been so worthwhile that I have my brother. I always had that feeling in my heart that he was there.”

Brenda’s emotional interview with Becky Want was aired on BBC Radio Manchester on Tuesday.

Click here to hear a clip from the show.