Most of us know who we are. We know our parents, grandparents and, very often, great-grandparents. But for foundlings the story is very different.

They are babies abandoned at birth - either dumped on a doorstep, abandoned in a toilet or simply left to die.

One such foundling is Sandy Webster, who knows very little about her natural mother, having been abandoned when she was three weeks old. Sandy still doesn't know exactly how old she is, who her father was or even what her intended name was.

Instead, she was called Elizabeth Gray - Elizabeth after the Queen and Gray after the nearest street to where she was found, Grays Inn, in London. And despite years of investigation, she knows little more now than she did then. But through her endeavours, Sandy, 43, came to realise that there are numerous other orphans in the same position. And having joined Norcap - the National Organisation for Counselling of Adoptees and Parents - based in Wheatley, she has now set up a branch dealing just with foundlings. But she realises she is unlikely to ever uncover her own personal truth. "I want to know why my son has got size 13 feet and blond hair when the rest of the family has small feet and dark hair," she says.

"People take the details of their births for granted because they know who they are, but I still have so many pieces of the jigsaw missing. That's the only way I can describe what it's like to be a foundling. "All I do know is that as a mother of three children, abandoning a baby must be the hardest decision you ever have to make as a woman, and my mother must have had no other choice. Very few babies are left to die. They are normally left in phoneboxes or on the steps of a police station or hospital, and most are warmly wrapped."

Sandy's adoptive parents decided to tell her she had been adopted when she was a teenager. Over the years she has discovered little snippets of information about her past. She discovered that she was well-cared for when she was abandoned and has also met the daughter of the newspaper editor who found her. But there are many unanswered questions.

"I was three weeks old when I was found so where was I for the three weeks prior to that?" she says.

Since starting the foundling section of Norcap, Sandy has come in contact with about 100 foundlings and has 87 on the Norcap contact register which helps in the search for their families. Sandy is also campaigning for the rights of foundlings.

"What we need is some sort of amnesty. We are caught in a trap because you can still be prosecuted for abandoning children. So any mothers guilty of this are unlikely to come forward.

"We, on the other hand, can't register on the Government's national contact register because we can't provide any identifying information such as our real names, birth dates, place of birth and so on. We are in a limbo." Sandy says an amnesty and national register are needed together with a campaign to encourage foundlings and their blood relatives and birth mothers to come forward. But Norcap needs massive funding for that and it's running on a shoestring as it is. "I'm asking people to write to their MPs to campaign on their behalf to change the legislation," she says.

Norcap can be reached on 01865 875000. Donations would be gratefully received.

Story date: Friday 15 October

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