Woman who was abandoned in a phone box as a newborn baby does incredible act for stranger who saved her
At just hours old, a defenceless baby was left abandoned in a public phone box.
During the early hours of 30 April 1994, the innocent newborn was left alone with the umbilical cord still attached and nothing to identify where she had come from.
It was only due to the incredible kindness of a neighbour, who was using the public phone to call his family overseas, that the police were informed and the baby was brought into the care system.
Now aged 32, and with little memory of her early childhood, April, named after the month she was found, has bravely told LADbible of her story.
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And after attempting to get answers from her birth mother, she has now been able to reconnect with the heroic stranger who have gave her a second chance at life, who has since become ‘like a father’ to her.
"He thought I was a packet of fish and chips"
April was mere hours old when her biological mum left her.
She had been born at home without the help of nurses or medical professionals, before being put in a baby grow and abandoned in a West London street.
Wrapped up, she was left in a public phone box on the junction of Dames Road and Clinton Road in Forest Gate.
Defenceless and developing hypothermia, April could’ve been dead within hours.
But when Joe Campbell, now 62, went in to use the phone box in the early hours of the morning, he knew he had to act.
Calling the police, he stayed with April who was immediately taken into the care system.
At the time, notices were being plastered in local newspapers. Naming her the ‘abandoned baby’, social services distributed images of her and pleaded with someone with information to come forward.
April was fostered and later adopted, when Joe, who had been sending her cards and gifts as well as visiting her, was told he had to stop and that April could try to trace him again if she wanted to at age 18.
Speaking to LADbible, April explained: “It was really sad actually. My mum had given birth to me at home in the middle of the night and then straight away she abandoned me.
“My mum never came forward. Maybe she was scared. Maybe she was embarrassed. But she never did.
“Joe would use the phone box every other day to call his mum in Guyana and they’d always pick up. He’d go at 10pm. That night, they didn’t answer, so he was worried.
“He went home and then returned to the phone box at 2am, which was when he found me. As he got closer to the phone box, he thought he saw rubbish on the floor. Then he thought it was a packet of fish and chips, but it was me.”
"I knew I'd have to find him again"
Police took April to the hospital as she was suffering from hypothermia. Although social services immediately began taking over April’s care, Joe never forgot about her.
“He found me, but it didn’t end there,” April explained. “He was calling every day asking how I was. ‘How is baby April?’... That was what he called me.
“He would go into social services to see me and they let him take a picture holding me, which we both still have today.
“Every year he would gather money and presents for me and write me cards for my birthday. But then when I turned seven and was adopted, he was told to stop.
“Then when I found out I was adopted I got given a life story book, and the only good stuff in it was about Joe. I knew some day I’d have to find him again.
“Social services just said they couldn’t give me any more information and that I could find him again when I turned 18. So years and years just went by.”
After being adopted by an older family, April said her childhood was ‘really really tough’, quickly caring for siblings and her terminally-ill adoptive mum. She also suffered abuse at the hands of someone older than her.
She was bullied in school over students who denied her harrowing story was ever real and was singled out simply because she looked different to her new family.
“My adoptive parents were brilliant, but they were far older,” she said.
“You know, my mum ended up very sick. So, I never had a mum.
“I don't remember having a mum. I just literally remember caring for her and being left to it.
“Everything fell apart slowly. Mum got sicker and sicker. Dad was always working, and the person that was mistreating me continued to a point that it damaged me so, so badly.”
April lived just minutes from eight siblings and birth mum
In an unbelievable twist, April was completely unaware that she was growing up just five minutes away from siblings she didn’t know about, and her birth mum who had abandoned her years earlier.
Desperate for answers, April issued a public news appeal in 2016 asking for her birth mum and Joe to come forward.
Although 22 years had passed, Joe quickly reached out and the pair connected instantly, but April’s biological mother remained silent.
“Within 24 hours Joe was there,” April said. “And we just hugged straight away.
“I can’t explain to anyone how special it was. It’s a bizarre feeling, like I already knew him and he was familiar.
“Maybe it was because he was the first person to have held me that night I was born. But he just felt like my dad, and ever since then, this man has been a dad to me.
“A few people have seen him on the bus and said ‘I knew you saved April’.”
“He comes to my house and brings shopping every time he comes. He single handedly still works and provides for his family. He does everything for everyone.
“And he’s never stopped. He’s amazing. His kids are my siblings now. I love all of them and they are my family.”
April has learnt to accept that she will likely never get the answers she so desperately craved from her birth mother.
After hiring a private investigator, and with the help of one of her eight biological siblings who she found and met for the first time as a teenager in high school, April was able to track down her mother and discovered she had been living mere minutes away her entire life.
“Our meeting was very short-lived,” April told LADbible. “I ended up going to her door one day with my other sibling. She raised five of my siblings with her.
“She knew who I was but didn’t want to talk. I understood even at the time she didn’t want a relationship. It’s sad, but I understand it.
“She never gave me a reason for any of it or explained anything.
“She never gave us the explanation or have a conversation with us. I’m a mum and I’ve been through things, but you fight through it.”
April's incredible act for stranger who 'saved her life'
April, now in a stable relationship and a mum herself, is planning an incredible act for Joe. Due to his declining health, she is trying to raise enough money to support him in retiring.
So far, more than £18,000 has been raised online for the selfless hero who gave April ‘a chance at life’.
“Joe is one of the kindest, most selfless people I have ever known,” she said “He deserves a retirement filled with comfort, peace and the freedom to enjoy life after spending decades putting others first.
“This fundraiser is my way of giving something back to the man who gave me everything without even knowing it.
“He has taught me what family means. His kids still treat me like a sibling. It’s truly magical. It’s like we’ve just always been together.
“It’s given me a lot of strength, a lot of love, and it’s helped me to love people more in return, openly and honestly.
“I am desperate to help him get retired. He’s had two knee replacements and is in so much pain, but would never ask for help. He’s always just give, give, give, but won’t ever stop working because he wants to keep providing.
“I really believe that people like Joe, who is just the kindest angel on Earth, deserve it.”
Despite her relationship with Joe and their blended family, April says she regularly thinks about what could’ve happened had he not have found her in the phone box that night.
“Every time I see Joel, I ask how the stars aligned in this way,” she explained.
“I think about how I got so blessed. How it was Joe who found me. I went through so much and never knew I had a family like this waiting.
“We are meant to be. We are like glue and we just clicked.
“I’m not joking. If he didn’t come back out to use the phone box, it could’ve been anyone, or no-one. I had hypothermia, and there were lots of foxes around that night.
“He saved my life.”
James Holt