When Kate Jarrett listened to a tape on her 16th birthday of her mum explaining the heartbreaking story of why she was taken into care when she was just four months old, it tore her world apart.

Her mother, Karen Irons, who was at the time suffering from depression and drink-related problems, left the cassette with Kate's adoptive parents in Luton on the instruction that she should play it on that day.

Kate was told she was adopted when she was about five, but the emotional narrative made her desperate to find her real mum.

Remarkably, at the age of 27 after years of trawling through social media and even using a private detective, she has been reunited with her mum - who lives more than 400 miles away.

Karen, 46, who has since married, is frail, desperately underweight and wheelchair-bound.

But seeing her daughter after all these years made her determined to get better and move south to be with her "new family".

Kate, mum to three daughters, has forged a friendship with Suzie, a sister she never knew existed.

After hearing the tape kept by adoptive parents Sue and Paul Jarrett, Kate got in touch with the social services department which handled the adoption.

She said: "I was just fobbed off. So I knew if I was going to get anywhere I was on my own."

Years of searching sites specialising in ancestry, births, deaths and marriages proved fruitless.

She spotted an advert for a private detective who, after hearing her story, waived her charges and took on her case for free.

Kate managed to track down her grandparents in Aberdeen through the private investigator, but they denied all knowledge of their granddaughter.

The adoption had been prompted when Kate's young mum, then 19, came home after a night out to collect her from a babysitter and dropped her on concrete stairs where they were living in Herne Bay.

The infant was taken to hospital with an unexplained bruise. Police arrived to question her and Kate was taken away.

She was initially put into foster care but at the age of eight months the Jarretts, who live in Downsview, Luton, adopted her.

It was a closed adoption, which meant that any contact with her birth mother had to be through social services.

Kate said: "It’s a very sad story. She was young and had no support. As I grew older I started to ask more questions.

"I always had a gut feeling that she never wanted to give me away. I tried everything, but lead after lead just ran cold.

"I resent my grandparents because if they had been honest I could have had an extra 10 years with my mum.

"I even had a photograph of me in my grandmother's arms and my middle name is Maureen as I was named after her."

The breakthrough came in January when Kate's partner, warehouse manager Mike Wilcock, 28, suggested another website which threw up the name Suzie Cullen.

Further research indicated Suzie was her sister living in Middlesbrough.

Kate, of Luton Road, Luton, said: "Mike said she looked like me. I had trouble breathing. I just collapsed in tears. It took me two days to summon up the courage to message her back."

Her stepfather acted as middle-man asking Kate questions to make sure she was genuine before putting her on to Suzie, aged 22.

Kate said: "We spoke for hours, trying to fill in the blanks, but none of it making much sense."

"Suzie answered the door and we gave each other a massive hug. She led me into the living room and there she was in the flesh – my mum sitting on the sofa..." - Kate Jarrett

In March, Kate's adoptive father drove her on the five-and-a-half hour journey to visit her mum, also living in Middlesbrough, and her sister.

She said: "At first it was just like one of our normal days out, but when I saw the sign to Middlesbrough, it all kicked in. I was very nervous.

"Suzie answered the door and we gave each other a massive hug. She led me into the living room and there she was in the flesh – my mum sitting on the sofa. I got down on my knees and we just held each other for about 45 minutes.

"There was an instant bonding, everything just clicked. It was just like the missing piece of a jigsaw had been found."

Kate was also amazed about much she had in common with her younger sister.

"We both adore anything about Harry Potter, magic and animals. Now I can't wait for them to meet my partner and daughters."

She hopes Karen may soon be fit enough to visit her and Mike and her daughters, Fayth, 10, Natalie, nine, and two-year-old Sophie.

Kate said: "I've been told she has improved in health since we met. She has told me she has the fight in her."