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A woman who found an abandoned baby outside a pub toilet has sadly passed away following the filming of a show in which he was reunited with his family.
Mavis Gorvan was among the first people to find Simon Jeffery who was left inside a corned beef box in 1963 outside the Railway Tavern, now a McDonald's restaurant in Greenhithe.
Last night's special edition of Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace saw the team document 56-year-old Simon's remarkable journey towards finding his birth family.
In one scene, as Simon attempts to trace his birth family he reads out a newspaper clipping that said Mavis was among the people who had found him in the box all those years ago.
Once the episode finished, an ITV announcer revealed that Mavis had sadly passed away since filming took place.
A statement from the broadcaster said: "Sadly, since filming, Mavis Gorvan who found Simon Jeffery as a baby has passed away. Our thoughts are with her family."
In the programme we learnt Mavis was playing darts in the Railway Tavern the night he was left.
Mavis aged 95, met Simon the Three Dawes pub in Gravesend with her daughter, Pat, who also remembered the night he was found.
Pat recalled asking her mum Mavis "Did you win?" to which she replied "yes, and we found a baby outside the ladies' toilets".
The Gravesend resident remarked “every one of them wanted to take you home... you were loved by lots of people.”
Mavis even kept a photo on public display for many years, but despite touching the hearts of the local community, Simon’s mother never came forward.
The pair speculated about the possibilities of Simon's origins for many years but all was revealed later in the programme after Long Lost Family managed to use DNA to trace the lorry driver's living relatives.
Sadly his parents, who were married to each other, had passed away but the team managed to locate a full brother.
Simon's brother, Stephen, is one of six full siblings, of which four are still alive and two have passed away.
But after years of searching for answers, Simon was posed with yet more questions after discovering he was the youngest.
So what could have led to the tragic events surrounding Simon’s abandonment?
Presenter Nicky Campbell meets with siblings Julie, Tony and Christine who are all shocked to find out about Simon and had no idea he even existed.
They are left devastated about what happened to him but reason that their mother was under pressure at the time of Simon’s birth.
Christine, the next youngest sibling, was very premature and would have needed hospital care before coming home to the family.
They also strongly suspect their mother may have been struggling with post-natal depression, a topic they say was neither widely talked about or understood at the time.
All of this would have been a huge strain on the family, they say, and speculate that this could have led to Simon being left.
And while they will never know the full story behind Simon's abandonment, Christine adds: “It is a new beginning, for all of us. "He’s our little baby brother and it’ll hopefully be one happy family.”
TV presenter Davina McCall meets with Simon off screen to tell him the news about his parents and to share all the information discovered about his birth family.
Simon is completely overwhelmed to discover he has four surviving siblings, and even more surprised that they are all older than him.
But what came next was to be the biggest shock of them all - the family home was also in Gravesend, just a few streets from where Simon has lived his whole life.
Simon is delighted to hear his birth family wish to meet him and one week after hearing the news he arranges to meet them all at a guest house, near Gravesend.
The resemblance to his siblings is uncanny. He remarks: "We have the same smokey blue eyes and dimple in our chin."
He even discovers he has worked at the same Co-op in Dartford as some of them during the eighties.
“Our paths have probably crossed so many times. So many times.” he said.
After the show he said: "I thought I'm no longer an abandoned baby, I'm no longer a foundling, I am a sibling. I'm a brother!"
Catch Simon's remarkable story in Long Lost Family Special: Born Without Trace on ITV Hub.
