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Man from Wigan discovers long lost family members on ITV show
He was reunited with his half-siblings after his mother was forced to give him up at birth
A man from Wigan was miraculously reunited with long lost family members as part of an award-winning ITV reality series.
Fifty-two-year-old Roy Sibblies appeared on Long Lost Family this week to track down his biological mother, who was forced to give him up as a baby.
The truck driver grew up in Wigan believing his father’s wife Joan was his real mother, before finding out his birth mother – a woman named Janet – had left him for his dad to raise when he was a baby in 1969.
During the episode, an emotional Roy finds out that a nineteen-year-old Janet had been forced to give him up by her white family due to social attitudes at the time – his father, Eccleston, was Jamaican, and he was a mixed-race baby, something her parents disapproved of.
ITV
Roy said upon finding out Janet’s heartbreaking reason: “To give a baby up because of…the colour of their skin…That cuts really, really deep to the core.
“It’s important for me to know whether she regrets her decision.”
Sadly, Roy later found out that Janet had passed away in 2019, but the team at ITV were able to find that she had two other children, both of whom were living in Worthing, East Sussex, and had always known about Roy.
His step-siblings, Dan and Jo, recalled their mother always telling everyone she had three children, with them claiming she would even commemorate his birthday each year.
ITV
Dan recalled on the show: “While we knew of Roy’s existence, never in a million year did we think we’d have the opportunity to meet him.”
Jo tearfully added: “Mum had a conversation with me that she’d have a baby when she was nineteen but that she wasn’t able to keep him.
“On Roy’s birthday every year she used to say ‘Happy birthday, I wonder what he’s doing’. She would say she had three children when people asked her how many she had.
“Mum always got so upset when she spoke about him because it was her biggest regret that she wasn’t able to keep him.”
ITV
The siblings eventually met in an emotional reunion, with Roy saying he felt ‘every emotion that you can think of running through me.’
He said: “I hope her [Janet’s] spirit is around to feel the love, even though I’ve never seen her, the love I have for her. All the fears that I had all disappeared. I felt like my birth mother was there.”
In an emotional moment for all three siblings, Jo presented Roy with the photographs Janet had kept all these years.
Roy said: “Seeing those photos, that hurt. But a nice hurt, because that meant my mother had kept them for whole of her life. It’s just absolutely amazing.”
Long Lost Family airs tonight at 9pm on ITV.
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M&S is doing a Christmas piña colada cocktail and it’s on shelves now
This sounds pretty delicious!
M&S shoppers are raving over a festive cocktail that is a Christmas twist on a delicious summer classic, and it’s already on shelves.
Shoppers are going mad for the new festive ‘must have’ with one bargain hunter spotting it already stocked in her local Marks’, which she posted to social media.
The savvy shopper shared a snap of the luxurious gold and red bottle with an Art Deco logo, which quickly went viral with the post racking up over 1,000 likes.
The photo also shows the M&S Christmas Colada is on sale for £5.50 a bottle.
A festive twist on the classic piña colada, it’s flavoured with ‘pineapple juice, coconut milk, and warming spices with two measures of white rum’, and is sure to go down a treat this winter season.
The Christmas bargain was shared to the Snack News & Reviews Facebook page where users rushed to social media to share their excitement for the product, calling it a ‘must have’ as they also praised the price.
A great gift to bring along to Christmas dinner parties, shoppers say it is perfect for something to sip on throughout the season’s festivities.
One person wrote: “Defo getting this wee number for Christmas Day!” Another said: “Wow, two measures. I’ll have three bottles. What is everyone else drinking?”
While a third put: “Ooohhh yes. I can feel a few pre-Xmas party drinks at mine coming on.” And a fourth typed: “M&S pulling it out the bag again with their Christmas drinks!!”
Other users wondered whether M&S’ popular drinks ‘Let it Sloe’ and ‘Slow Fizz’ are back in stock again for the upcoming Christmas season.
It comes after one shopper urged people to head to their nearest M&S immediately as she was able to bag around £100 worth of shopping for just £16.
Victoria Evangeline posted a video on her TikTok saying: “M&S prices are a joke. They are ridiculous at the moment, you’ve got to see this.”
She went on to say M&S are getting rid of all their summer stock to make way for its Christmas range and that’s why some of its prices are so low – so best get down there asap!
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Strong chance of snow on Christmas Day, according to experts
Snowfall would be like the icing in the cake
Experts have predicted there will be a strong chance of snow falling on Christmas Day this year.
Just a few months remain until the big day, which means the countdown is officially on.
In an early outlook, bookmaker William Hill’s betting odds suggest there’s a pretty strong chance we could perhaps be more than dreaming of a white Christmas this year, with Manchester at 4/1.
Snow is looking good for parts of Scotland as the betting firm have made it just 2/1 in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 3/1 in Leeds. Winter is definitely coming and the North could be covered in a blanket of snow.
Liverpool and Newcastle can bet on odds of snow falling in their Northern cities at 20/1.
And anyone betting on a snowy winter wonderland this Christmas in the capital can take 11/1, while Gatwick is at 20/1.
Lee Phelps, a spokesperson for William Hill, said: “Before you know it the supermarkets are stacked high with mince pies and everyone is wondering whether we’ll have a White Christmas.
“The early betting makes Edinburgh and Glasgow the leading spots to see snow this year at just 2/1, while anyone who fancies a White Christmas in the capital, London, can take 11/1.
“Of all the markets relating to Christmas released today, the most hotly tipped one has to be King Charles III to reign supreme on Christmas Day, with the royal broadcast looking nailed-on at 1/6 to draw in the day’s highest peak viewership.”
With Christmas inescapably in your face now – as supermarkets have already started stacking their shelves for those who like to shop early and those who may need reminding before it creeps upon you – William Hill also has a list of other Christmas specials.
These include LadBaby to record another festive chart topper at even money and King Charles III’s speech to be the most watched programme on Christmas day, at 1/6.
William Hill odds for snow on Christmas Day 2023:
Edinburgh (Airport) 2/1
Glasgow (Airport) 2/1
Leeds (Leeds-Bradford airport) 3/1
Belfast (Airport) 7/2
New York (JFK International airport) 4/1
Manchester (Airport) 4/1
Birmingham (Airport) 6/1
Cardiff (Airport) 10/1
London (City Airport) 11/1
Bristol (Airport) 20/1
Dublin (Airport) 20/1
Paris (Charles de Gaulle International airport) 20/1
Aberdeen (Airport) 20/1
Liverpool (Airport) 20/1
Newcastle (Airport) 20/1
Gatwick (Airport) 20/1
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Mysterious pink pigeon baffles locals after it’s spotted in Greater Manchester
The fuchsia feathered friend has been seen on the streets of Prestwich
A pink pigeon has been spotted in a town centre in Bury leaving residents speculating as to how it got its colour.
The fuchsia feathered creature has been seen around Prestwich, standing out from the rest of the grey pigeons, while eating food being given to it by locals.
Greater Manchester Police in Bury North tweeted that their officers on foot patrol around the centre also ‘came across a rare pink pigeon in the town centre’.
But people have been wondering how the bird came to be the hot pink hue, with many believing it may be via artificial means.
One resident asked in a post on Twitter: “Has anyone else seen this pink pigeon in Bury and does anyone know why it is pink?!”
In response, one commenter said: “I saw it on Monday. Apparently they release them at weddings.” Another put: “Yeah I saw it last week on the rock.”
A third person wrote: “Believe it was used in a gender reveal hence the hot pink. Seen several times.” And a fourth added: “When I worked in Miles Platting there were bright blue ones that had become dyed by the nearby paint factory.”
A spokesperson for the RSPCA told the Manchester Evening News: “We can’t be sure whether these birds have been deliberately covered in a pink substance, or whether they have fallen in something.
“If someone has intentionally painted the pigeon’s feathers this is very worrying as it could cause health problems, impair their ability to fly and make them more vulnerable to predators.
“Dye and paints can be toxic to birds and animals, and they would be likely to try to clean any such substance from their coat or feathers which could result in them swallowing it.”
Earlier this year, a pigeon was dyed pink for a gender reveal party in New York City before being discovered by animal rescuers.
Due to complications from the harmful and toxic chemicals in the dye, the bird – a white king pigeon – unfortunately died a week later.
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