When a letter turned up out of the blue, the last thing a Helston grandmother expected was to discover she had a half-brother at the age of 60.

Yet that is exactly what has happened to Margaret Breasley from Helston, who suddenly found herself living out one of her favourite TV programmes.

She joked: "I've been expecting Davina McCall on the doorstep. I'm addicted to Long Lost Family - you see people and think, 'Oh my God, how wonderful.' Then this random letter comes, with a French stamp on."

The letter was from a man called John Clegg, claiming that they shared the same mother, Joan Darrah.

Initially, she was convinced it was a scam. She continued to believe this, even as she picked up the phone to dial the number he gave.

It was not until he told her, "I kissed that letter when I posted it - I hoped you'd ring," that it occurred to her it might be real - and when he told her he was born in Manchester, somewhere she was aware her own mother had gone to live for a short period of time in 1947, Margaret knew.

"Finding you've got a brother when you're 60 - I was in shock. I couldn't go to work for four days, I was literally in shock," she said.

Further conversation revealed even more similarities between them, including that they both have a blue left eye and a brown right eye. The odds of just one person having this are one in 10,000.

Just after Easter Margaret and her sister, who John knew nothing about, flew out to visit him at his home in Béziers, France."

"We're absolutely thrilled. We just wish we'd known about him. We wish mum had told us that he was out there. But we know in our hearts mum would be thrilled that we've found each other," said Margaret, who added: "It's like meeting a male version of yourself. It's been a very emotional rollercoaster."

John had started making tentative enquiries about tracking down his family 25 years ago, but was put off by a friend who said not to "intrude on a family."

It was not until he was approaching his 70th birthday that he was persuaded to try again, with his partner Ian flying to England to carry out research on his behalf.

Using John's mother's surname, Ian tracked down what appeared to be a sister. Further investigations on social media led to a picture of Margaret, and the family resemblance was so clear that upon showing his friends they told John: "She looks like you, in drag!"

Margaret said it was now clear why, when she and her sister were children, they would always have family holidays in Blackpool, as John grew up near there.

"We went so many times my sister and I were sick of it. I think she [mum] was always looking for him. We even stayed at a hotel near to where he lived," she added.

Margaret now hopes that John will be able to visit England and meet her children.