As an assistant producer at CBBC, Lee Kitchen makes his living from children’s stories.

But for years a major part of his own story has remained a mystery - the identity and whereabouts of his father.

Now a father himself, Lee, 35, has set out to find the man who was missing from his childhood. But all he knows of his father comes from the scant memories of his mother and her friends - memories of a brief fling, years ago.

“There were times growing up when it was just me and my mum – some hard times”, Lee said. “We didn’t have very much money. I thought about what my dad might be like, and what it might be like to meet him.”

Lee doesn’t even know his father’s surname. Last year he thought he’d finally tracked his father down - but his hopes were dashed when a DNA test came back negative.

Now, he’s approached the Manchester Evening News with what he does know of his father - in the hope that someone might recognise the ‘apprentice joiner with dark hair and rosy cheeks’.

Lee knows that it was on a winter night back in 1981 that his mum, Eileen Kitchen, then a 36-year-old mum-of-three, went on a night out with her mate Sheila to Fridays in West Didsbury.

Eileen remembers being approached on the dancefloor by an 18-year-old lad from Bredbury, dressed in a simple shirt and black trousers.

He was confident and cool, Lee has been told, an apprentice joiner with dark hair and rosy cheeks who had a love for cars and the Sex Pistols.

They danced, and the couple started dating over the course of a month. He’d pick her up from her home in Cheadle in his black Mini and they’d go into the Peak District for a drive. Sometimes his friends and her friend Sheila would join them.

Then things changed. Steve told Eileen he already had a girlfriend who worked as a nurse at Stockport Infirmary.

Soon after, Eileen discovered she was pregnant with his child. She never saw him again.

“I’m a forgiving person, and I don’t hold grudges”, Lee says. “He was 18. I know what it’s like to be 18. I can put myself in his shoes – I can’t judge him”, Lee says.

After she had given birth, Eileen’s friend Sheila bumped into some of Steve’s friends on a night out at Bredbury Hall, and told them she had given birth to his son. He looked just like him, she said. His friends told her that Steve had moved away, emigrating to Canada.

Eileen then went to Stockport Infirmary with her mum to find Steve’s girlfriend, but she was off that day, she was told, so she never went back again.

At the time she became pregnant, Eileen was separated from her husband Bill - but still living with him. Giving birth to another man’s baby complicated things, and so Eileen moved out with Lee and one other child.

Lee remembers his childhood as ‘happy’ - although there was never much money - but over the years he became more and more curious about his dad.

“When you are a teenager, you get these situations where you want to speak to someone else, and can’t always go to your mum”, he says.

Over the years, Lee asked family members for more information about Steve, but all he would hear back were the same stories about the black Mini, and that he looked like him.

Finally, in October last year, Lee’s friends encouraged him to bite the bullet and share what he knew about his dad in a Stockport Facebook group in an effort to find him.

As a ‘private’ person, it didn’t come naturally to him sharing personal information online. But the post, which was shared 3,000 times, did produce a few leads.

One man matched the description of his dad so closely that the pair took a paternity test. But the test came back as a zero per cent match.

It was disheartening, but didn’t put him off his search.

Lee is now urging anyone with any information may be of help to trace Steve to get in touch. He would now be about 54 years old.

Lee, who has two children - Logan, 4, from a previous relationship and Isla, 2, with his partner Anna, holds no grudges. He simply wants to reach out to his dad, so he can complete his family picture.

“I’ve got my own house, two kids, and I’m getting married next year”, he says. “I’ve done everything I can to make myself happy and give my kids everything I didn’t have growing up.

“He doesn’t need to bring me up. Wouldn’t it be great if I could be part of his life, to see the grand-kids growing up.

“But if he doesn’t want that, then that’s fine. It’s just about finding out who he is.”

Do you know someone who might match Steve’s description? Then get in touch at rebecca.day@trinitymirror.com.

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