Londoner Michael Dick travelled to Sudbury to find his daughter Lisa whom he had not seen for over 10 years.

After a fruitless search, Mr Dick turned to the Free Press for help, asking us to put an appeal in the paper.

And within hours of the paper hitting the streets, Michael's search was over when Lisa spotted her dad in the paper.

Then, incredibly, on closer inspection she spotted herself in the picture, too.

Lisa, 31, said: "I was just completely shocked. Me and my mum had been standing in that exact place where the picture was taken about a minute earlier, and you can see us in the picture walking away. It is incredible."

Lisa – who moved to Sudbury with her mother when her parents split and now lives in Colchester – had even talked about finding her father to friends just days earlier.

"It is very strange, perhaps it was fate," she added.

Lisa telephoned her father at the number in the paper and even he couldn't quite believe how quickly things had moved.

Lisa said: "He didn't believe it was me at first, he thought it was a hoax. But he soon realised it was me and said he loved me and had missed me."

Mr Dick drove up from London hours after speaking to Lisa, meeting her that evening.

"It was a bit weird but I think it went OK," said Lisa, who has three children of her own: Ross 13, Sam 11 and Courtney 8.

"He's promised to keep in touch. I don't think it will be 10 years before we see each other again," she added.