5 days Ago By Bethany Whittingham
An Antiques Roadshow guest struggled to hold back tears after they were reunited with a figure from the past in a heartbreaking rescue story. During the Christmas special of the beloved BBC show in 2023 revisited several items that have featured on the programme over the past few years. The festive special updated viewers about the valuable family heirlooms and what happened to them after they were appraised.
One of the stories first featured in an episode filmed at Aston Hall in Birmingham, where a lady called Kate brought in a collection of items from her childhood. She had been displaced by the ‘Great Leap Forward’ in China between 1958 and 1962. Kate was a baby when she became a refugee, having been abandoned in Hong King where she was found on a stairwell.
She explained how she had been taken to a children’s home, then to another, before she was brought to the UK in 1963. The guest had brought in a framed picture of her as a baby being carried by an air stewardess, as well as the jacket she was wearing in the picture and her I.D bracelet.
The expert asked: “Presumably, you’ve got nothing else?” to which she replied: “I’ve got nothing else, and I’m privileged to have them.” Host Fiona Bruce then revealed how – after Kate’s episode aired – the show was contacted by the daughters of Helen Childs, the air stewardess carrying Kate in the picture. Sadly, Helen passed away a few years ago but her two daughters came to meet Fiona and Kate in an emotional reunion.
One daughter called Mandy, said: “We were really stunned to see our mother in front of us on the Antiques Roadshow when we’ve had that photo for so long and not know its heritage and to see the woman that child became is incredibly emotional. She would have been thrilled to see that and to know about Kate.” Kate revealed the flight was 21 hours from Hong Kong to London and she marvelled at how Helen and the other air stewardesses had managed to look after so many small children for all that time.
She added: “One of the things that is lovely is I now know their mum’s name all these years I’ve just thought, ‘Oh, it’s the air hostess’.” Fiona then asked the women what it was like to meet one another, and Mandy replied: “It’s been really lovely, we’ve got on so well with Kate in the time we’ve met her. We feel like we have a friend.
” Choking back tears and pointing at the framed photo of baby Kate with their mum, she went on: “And it’s brilliant that it’s this friend.” The siblings then gifted Kate a compact mirror their mum used to use while flying. Mandy’s sister added: “When I first saw the clip where Kate was on and she had the picture, the jacket, and the bracelet, at the end of the clip she said, ‘These are all I have and I’m lucky to have these’, that really got to me.
“Every time I look at the clip it still gets to me, so we would very much like you to have the mirror that would have been with her on her flights around the world, with our love.” Also emotional, Kate replied: “I’m really touched actually, I’m really grateful.” Antiques Roadshow airs on Sundays from 7pm or catch up on BBC iPlayer.
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