A woman who was found abandoned in a London telephone box as a newborn has raised approximately £20,000 to help the Guyanese man who rescued her retire, saying he has become the father she had longed for.
Joe Campbell, now a bus driver, and April Jones returned to ITV’s Good Morning Britain on October 5, ten years after their reunion, to discuss their relationship. Both became emotional during the interview, particularly April as she described the fatherly care Campbell had given her and her wish to help him retire.
“He’s been my rock. He doesn’t let me struggle. He doesn’t let me suffer,” April told the programme. “He filled that whole void that I’ve had of not having parents, not having my mum, not having my dad.”
April said she launched her 2016 appeal hoping to find both Campbell and her birth mother, but had doubted that the man who rescued her would remember her.
Campbell responded within 24 hours.
Reflecting on her childhood, April said a life-story book she received when she was eight had introduced her to the man who had found her and continued asking about her welfare.
The book described someone who cared deeply about her and sent gifts, money and cards. That account stayed with her.
Campbell told the programme that he had wanted to take care of the baby himself. He was single and working in the civil service at the time, and said the authorities refused his request to keep her.
He was permitted to see her once afterwards, when a photograph was taken of him holding her, but subsequent requests for visits were declined.
“But I never stopped thinking about her,” he said. “I always wondered where she was and how she was doing.”
The opportunity to reconnect came in 2016 when a colleague placed a copy of the Metro newspaper on Campbell’s desk and pointed out an article about a woman searching for her rescuer.
Campbell said some details in the report, including his origins, were incorrect. However, he recognised the photograph accompanying the appeal because he had kept a copy of it.
He called his daughter Rihanna and told her he believed he had found April.
Although he had since had children of his own, Campbell said he had always told them about the baby he found.
“You’ve got a sister. She may not be biologically yours, but she is your sister,” he recalled telling them.
April said the relationship felt natural from their first embrace. She now regards Campbell’s children as her siblings, and they spend time together regularly.
“We are family. We feel like family,” she said.
Known as Kiran Sheikh when the reunion was reported in 2016, she told the programme that she changed her name back to April on her birthday this year as a surprise for Campbell, who had called her April from the beginning.
Her latest effort is to help him stop working following two knee replacements.
April said she decided to act after Campbell came to her home for a family dinner shortly after an operation, despite her intention to send food to him so that he could recover at home.
Seeing him limping and in pain prompted her to begin raising money. She said approximately £20,000 had been donated by the time of the interview, and Campbell had only learned about the effort a few days earlier.
“He provides for everyone, does everything for everyone, and I really want to try and do something back,” she said.
Campbell thanked her, but described himself as an ordinary person trying to do his best.
“Every child born has a right to have love bestowed upon them,” he said, expressing regret that he had not been able to raise April.
Recalling the night he found her, Campbell said he had returned to the telephone box because his father, who was in Guyana at the time, had not been home during his earlier call and he wanted to ensure both parents were well.
He initially mistook the baby for discarded wrapping near the telephone box, which stood beside a community centre.
Campbell clarified that April was wearing a babygrow rather than wrapped in a blanket. He remembered the April morning as unusually warm.
“So I take it divine intervention of some sort kept her alive,” he said.
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