A story on the Hull Daily Mail’s website thisishull.co.uk has led to two brothers making contact for the first time in 40 years.

As a result of a family rift, Derek Clyde lost touch with his brother John, who shortly afterwards emigrated to Australia with his parents, leaving Derek to live in Hull.

John, now 58 and living in Perth, looks at the website regularly to catch up with news from his old home town.

He saw a story that mentioned the name of Derek’s old childhood sweetheart, guessed they could have married and used an internet research company to trace the family.

The brothers have now spoken - good news and a welcome relief after several attempts to make contact over the years, each of which was unsuccessful.

Ironically it was Derek's frowned-upon romance with Janice - now his wife - who was four years younger, that split the family all those years ago.

Derek told the Mail: "I had almost given up hope of ever seeing my family again. Who knows how long we have left?"

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