Kiran Sheikh was reunited with Joe Campbell at Metro’s offices (Picture: National)

A woman dumped in a phone box as a baby has been reunited with the stranger who rescued her 22 years ago – after he read about her in Metro.

Kiran Sheikh was only two hours old when she was abandoned on April 30, 1994. Her mother, who was trapped in an abusive relationship, then called the Samaritans, urging them to come quickly for the baby.

Phone box baby’s mission to find man who found her 22 years agoBut before they arrived at the call box in Forest Gate, east London, she was found by Joe Campbell, then 30, who called police after seeing what he first thought was ‘a bag of chips’.



Mr Campbell, now 52, sent gifts and birthday cards for the first five years of her life, but then social services asked him to cut ties. ‘I was allowed a picture with her, which I kept,’ added Mr Campbell, who said he asked about adopting the baby himself, but was turned down as he was not married.


But he never forgot her and later often spoke to his own five children – aged from seven to 17 – about their ‘adopted sister’.

Joe pictured shortly after he found Kiran (Picture: National)

A poster that was released when Kiran was abandoned (Picture: SWNS)

Kiran was keen to meet up with the man who found her (Picture: SWNS)

Yesterday a co-worker at the courier company he works for showed him a copy of Metro, where Ms Sheikh was appealing to find her saviour, saying he was called John or Joe Campbell.

‘A colleague showed it to me when he saw my name, and was sure it was me. I said “no”. Then I saw her photograph and I was overcome, I was so happy,’ said Mr Campbell, from Bell Green, south London.

Things might get a little awkward for Theresa May todayAnd last night the two were reunited in Metro’s London offices. Ms Sheikh, who has always lived in Forest Gate, said: ‘He says anyone would have done what he did, but they wouldn’t. It’s so amazing to have been reunited with him. He’s my hero. We lived down the road from each other for years, we must have passed each other, I can’t believe we were so close.’

Mr Campbell is keen to introduce Ms Sheikh, now a mum herself to a two-year-old, to his wife Ursula, 49, and the rest of his family. ‘This is the happiest day of my life,’ he added. ‘I never stopped thinking about her, I never thought this day would come.

‘She has a family waiting for her now, my children will love to meet her. I’m so grateful we have been brought together.’