United by DNA 'IT'S THE BEST GIFT OF MY LIFE'

Hillie's making up for lost time as she builds a sisterly bond with Lia

- Kasia De Vydt-Jillings

Squabbling over a game of cards as if they've been doing this their whole lives, you'd never know sisters Hillie Moot, 63, and Lia Kuis, 73, only met each other for the first time six months ago.

Or that before a DNA kit revealed their connection, Lia believed she was the only surviving member of her family and was struggling with her physical health, losing the will to live.

That was until August last year, when in her homeland of The Netherlands, Lia received a phone call from New Zealand. It was a nervous Hillie calling from Christchurch to say, “I think you're my half-sister.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lia responded, “I’m not your half-sister – I'm your sister.”

Though it came as a surprise to both to discover a sibling half a world away, the connection was instant and easy.

Hillie, the fourth of seven children, found out at the age of 28 that her dad who raised her wasn’t her biological father after a medical incident revealed she had a different blood type than both of her parents. But they refused to talk about it.

Even now, it’s a complicated subject for her dad in New Zealand, and her mother died without ever explaining more.