Leeds pensioner is re-united with long-lost sister after 30 years

Two long-lost sisters who have not spoken to each other for more than 30 years have been in touch once again thanks to an appeal by the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Anne Marsden, 75, who is terminally ill, contacted the paper and made a heartfelt and emotional plea in Monday’s edition for help to find her younger and only surviving sister before it was too late.

Widow and mother of one, Mrs Marsden, who lives in Old Farnley, has a stomach cyst which is inoperable due to having suffered heart failure twice and does not know how long she has left to live.

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After trying to scroll through electoral registers and post office and library records she even contacted the police for help.

But after her sister came forward on Monday afternoon we were able to put them in touch and they had a long catch up over the phone.

Mrs Marsden said it was an emotional moment when she received the phone call.

She said: “I just said to her it was lovely to hear her voice and that I had been trying to find her for years.

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“I feel as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I have been banging my head against a brick wall with trying for so long. Every time I thought I will try this or that I would get a sorry back. I couldn’t sleep on Monday night with the elation of it all.“Thirty years is such a long time. Things like that happen and have happened but we both said let’s put it behind us.”

This was the last ditch attempt for Mrs Marsden to find her sister after more than 11 years of looking and wanting to fulfil a promise she made to their mother on her death bed that she would look out for her after they moved to Leeds.

In her appeal she said: “I have been poorly for 11 years but now I am very poorly. I haven’t got long and I can’t find her anywhere. I want her in my life for what life I have got left.”