A mum has been reunited with her baby scan photos and handbag 12 years after they were stolen thanks to an eagle-eyed litter picker.

Jean McNeilly, from Istead Rise, in Gravesend thought her treasured photos had been lost for good when her bag was taken from her kitchen one summer evening in 2012.

So the mum-of-two was amazed when she received a message on social media on Monday (March 11) asking if she recognised the contents of a bag a litter picker had found buried in undergrowth on the side of a road near her house.

Retired Sheila Gibson has been clearing the rubbish on the streets around her home for the past three years and said she had seen something buried in the undergrowth before but had been unable to reach it.

Recently they cut back the hedgerow on Downs Road and Sheila was able to grab the item.

“I thought it was a builder’s toolbag at first,” she said. “The leather had gone really hard. Then I noticed something shiny and opened it.”

Inside Sheila found house keys, a work lanyard, a purse full of credit cards and a driving licence. She also found four baby scan photos.

“I knew I had to find the lady who they belonged to,” she said, “because they are obviously very special.”

Sheila decided not to visit the address on the licence as the cards had expired and she thought the person might have moved. Instead, she searched social media for the name on the licence and sent a message.

“I asked if the items belonged to her, and she said they did.”

Jean, who lives just half a mile from where the bag was found and has walked along the other side of the road numerous times, said she was shocked when she got the message.

“I never thought I would see those photos again,” she said.

“You can live with losing most things but I was very upset when I lost the pictures.

“It was lovely to have them back.”

The 48-year-old, who works for an international bank, remembered when the bag was stolen from her kitchen one evening while she was upstairs putting her two young children to bed.

“I heard a thud and wondered what it was,” she said. “I went down into the kitchen to look.

“I had left the back door open because it was a hot evening.

“I suddenly noticed my handbag and phone were not where I had left them.”

‘I knew I had to find the lady they belonged to’

Jean, whose children are now 16 and 13, said she hunted the garden and the lane by her house but figured it was gone for good.

She added: “The police came and said the person probably wanted to steal our car and we should move it from the drive. We did that and we changed the locks. They never came back.”

The car keys were the only thing missing from Jean’s bag when the contents were returned.

Sheila said she started litter picking when she retired as she enjoys walking and it gave her a purpose for her daily jaunt.

In the past three years, she said she has found two smashed phones, a wallet with a memorial to someone’s mum, which she also managed to reunite with its owner, a purse, which she also returned and a firearm, which the police came to collect from the scene.