I FOUND MY SISTERS AFTER 44 YEARS

Raised as an only child, Magda Berg, 45, always felt like something was missing

- KATE POUNDS

Watching the band up on stage, I felt so proud. 'That's my dad,' I boasted to my friends as he drummed along to rock music. Aged 10, I loved going to his gigs. I'd tag along to rehearsals and knew all the words to his songs, but, having been adopted, it was no surprise that I hadn't inherited any of his musical talents.

I was just five when my parents sat me down and explained they'd chosen me to be their daughter. Still so young, I hadn't really understood what it meant, except that they loved me.

'You'll always be our girl,' Dad told me.

Only now, in 1990, I was starting to notice how different I was from the rest of our family. As well as not having any of Dad's music skills, I was more academic than my cousins. We all lived in Poland, but they lived in the countryside and loved growing crops, and I was much more of a city girl.

FEELING CURIOUS

Funnily enough, as I got older, I started to look like Dad, but in 1998, when I was 18, Dad died in a car accident. Mum and I clung to each other through our grief, but I felt so lost. I'd always felt like the odd one out and, without Dad, it really felt like a part of me was missing. For the first time, I started to wonder about my birth family, whether I had siblings and if there was anyone out there who truly looked like me, so I sat down with Mum and explained to her how I felt.

'I'm just curious,' I told her.

'You have my support,' she said with a hug, but all I had to go on was the name of the village I'd been born in, in Poland, and the convent I'd been left at.