A man abandoned as a baby outside a pub toilet says it feels like "being reborn" after being re-united with his birth family more than 50 years later.

Former foundling Simon Jeffery was left at 9pm on a cold October night in 1963 outside the Railway Tavern, now a McDonald's restaurant in Greenhithe.

He was found inside a corned beef box by a member of the local darts team who immediately sounded the alarm.

"Everyone tried to claim me. I had so many people say it was my mum who found you first," says the 57-year-old who tried desperately for years to uncover the secret of his past but had little success.

TV and newspaper coverage dubbed Simon Gravesend's Oliver Twist but it wasn't until last year when Simon's remarkable story featured as part of a special foundling edition of ITV's Long Lost Family he got some answers.

In the episode the lorry driver, who was fostered by a couple in Gravesend, Kathleen and Ernest Jeffery at his home address in St George's Crescent, discovered he was the youngest of seven children.

Even more remarkably, the 57-year-old's birth family were living just 10 minutes round the corner in Northcote Road, off Perry Street in Northfleet.

Sadly, Simon's parents had both passed away before the programme and producers delivered the devastating blow to him off camera.

But the show managed to track down three of his four living siblings Julie, Tony and Christine – who all still live locally and were unaware of Simon's existence.

They met up at the Tabsfield B&B in Eynsford for an emotional reunion at the show's climax.

Now, nearly a year since the programme aired in June last year, Simon has shared the full details of his whirlwind journey.

The dad-of-three is keen to make up for lost time and says "It is like being reborn and getting a whole new life".

At one gathering pre-pandemic he managed to meet his mum's sister before she passed away.

"We went down to Ashford to see my mum's sister, the last one of the three, so I got to meet her."

"It is like we have always been there" he explains of rejoining his birth family at birthdays, summer staycations and other social events.

He added: "I think we do things exactly the same, the way we hold our hands, even the way we sit and relax."

Simon's siblings all have the same smokey blue eyes and share a love for singing, albeit quite badly, he quips.

"I really could not believe it, " the lorry driver adds. "Going all my life thinking I was the only one. How wrong I was was!"

And while the pandemic has meant visits have been disrupted, sisters Julie and Christine still live a mile in each direction of Simon's Gravesend home and he has been able to visit his older brother in Allhallows when restrictions permit.

“Our paths have probably crossed so many times,” Simon told presenter Davina McCall.

This proved to be frighteningly accurate, he went on to explain, as further conversations with his brother and sisters revealed more than one or two chance encounters.

"Myself and Julie worked in the same shop," he said. "So our paths crossed without even knowing they crossed.'

Late brother Colin also worked alongside Simon at the former Co-op in Spital Street, Dartford, with their family connection remaining a secret.

"My brother was the baker and I was the butcher," said Simon.

"Because he would be working there all night he was always saving me doughnuts and I didn't know he was my brother."

The pair often worked different shift patterns but became pals for a time and even went for a drink on one occasion, Simon recalls.

In another bizarre discovery Simon also found out his late dad was the local milkman.

"I remember speaking to my milkman when I was only about 8 or 9," he said. "I would have been speaking to my dad."

There's also been much speculation as to what factors drove Simon's parents to make the difficult decision to give him up all those years ago.

It remains unclear the precise reasons but based on scant memories pieced together by his remaining siblings, who would have been small children, it is likely financial pressures and societal attitudes at the time played a large part.

"My oldest brother remembers the nan would be the boss of the family even though my parents were married," he said.

"She said the house is too small and they should put their name down on the council list but my dad said no."

Coincidently, Simon adds his grandfather was a member of the local darts team and so the location of his abandonment was likely deliberate.

"It's all very strange really," adds Simon. "We will never know the full details of what happened."

The ITV show was filmed before lockdown restrictions in September 2019 at various locations including popular diner Nell's Cafe, off the A2, near Gravesend.

Simon has kept in contact with presenter Davina McCall, who also lives in Kent, and regularly sends texts checking in on him.

He is planning a reunion with friends featured on the show and also offers help and advice to others trying to trace family roots.

He reveals how his own emotional reunion with his family nearly didn't happen as he was initially rejected on the casting call for the show which primarily focuses on adoption.

But the HGV driver is a firm believer in fate, having met his second wife Jane following a blind date advertised in the newspaper 20 years ago.

The pair had first met at primary school in Gravesend before going their separate ways when her family moved to Bexleyheath.

"I remember sitting next to her at six-years-old and I used to like her," he said. "It is like my life has been mapped out for me."

Simon now plans to pen a book on his lived experience tracking down his family roots.

Following the show he remarked: "I thought I'm no longer an abandoned baby, I'm no longer a foundling, I am a sibling. I'm a brother!"

Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace Episode 2 is still available to watch on ITV's Hub.

Read more: All the latest news from Gravesend