“I WAS A NEWBORN IN A PHONE BOX WITH MY UMBILICAL CORD ATTACHED”— APRIL PAUL

Among the rubbish on the floor of a red phone box lay a newborn baby girl, her umbilical cord still attached.

It was a bitterly cold morning in Forest Gate, East London, in April 1994. She might have gone unnoticed had a stranger not stopped to make a call and spotted what he first thought was a discarded chip wrapper.

Thirty-two years later, April Paul is telling her extraordinary story — including the heartbreaking encounter with the mother who gave her up.

THE MAN WHO SAVED HER

Joe Campbell was the stranger. He called the police immediately, and the tiny infant was rushed to Newham General Hospital, where she was given the name April after the month in which she was born.

Joe never forgot her. He took birthday cards, gifts and money to social services every year in the hope they would reach her.

He even asked if he could adopt her, but was turned down because he was unmarried at the time.

After years of trying to maintain contact, social workers eventually told him to stop.

April was adopted by another family and given a new name. She only learned the truth about her traumatic start in life when she was eight years old.

THE REUNION

In 2016, April launched a public appeal to find the man who had saved her.

Joe’s colleague recognised him from the appeal, and the two were finally reunited .Since then, he has become one of the most important people in April’s life.

“Joe saved my life 32 years ago, but he’s so much more than the man who found me,” April said. “He’s the type of man you would call in the middle of the night and he would come straight away”.

She now considers him family. “Joe is complete family. It’s like I was adopted again but in the right way this time around. His kids are my siblings now. We’re so close, we stay at each other’s houses. He never stopped thinking about me. I don’t know what this man is – an angel”.

THE MOTHER WHO SAID NO

But the search for her biological mother ended differently.

April tracked her down and visited her home in 2016. She hoped to understand why she had been “left to die” in the phone box. Instead, she claims the woman slammed the door in her face, swore at her and told her never to make contact again.

“Can you imagine how heartbreaking that was? What had I actually done wrong to her?” April said. “It felt like I could have died for all she cared, she left me in the phone box on what I have learnt was a bitterly cold morning”.

“My mother was so selfish. She neglected me and gave me the toughest start in life”. She had previously kept in touch with one of her siblings, but the two have since lost contact. “Like I said, I have tried to unite us, and reconcile with my mum, but it just isn’t happening, she doesn’t want to know”.

THE QUESTIONS THAT REMAIN

April, now a bank employee and a mother herself, said she is no longer holding grudges. But she still struggles to make sense of the decision that changed her life before it had barely begun.

“Obviously, I am upset and putting feelings into words is not easy for me, but my message to her is where is your humanity and ultimately why? Why would you do this to me?”.

She is also shocked that no action appeared to have been taken against her mother despite what happened.

“To be honest, I am surprised, now as an adult and a parent looking back. I was a newborn baby, in a phone box with my umbilical cord attached. It seems crazy to me that the authorities took no action” .

THE FUTURE

Despite the pain, April has built a life of her own. She works in a bank, is raising a son, and has Joe in her corner. “I am now a mother to a son, I work in a bank, and I have Joe there, who is the closest thing to family, other than my son, who I can have, he actually cares about me”.

She has not ruled out a reconciliation with her biological mother, saying she would not prevent her son from having a relationship with his grandmother if the woman came forward.

“If she wants to come out of wherever she is and reunite, then that is on her, she is a grandmother now and I would never stand in the way of my son and her having a relationship”.

WHY IT MATTERS

April’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of a single act of kindness.

Joe Campbell stopped to make a phone call on a cold morning and ended up saving a life. He never forgot the baby he found, and when she finally found him, he was there. He remains there.

Her biological mother chose a different path. She had her reasons, perhaps, though she has never explained them. But the door she slammed in 2016 closed a chapter that April had spent years trying to open.

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April has a son now. She knows how to be a mother, even though she never had one. And she has Joe, the stranger who became family.

ValidViewNetwork reports that April has launched a fundraising appeal to help Joe retire early, a small gesture of gratitude for the man who gave her a life .