A father posed for a publicity picture in a desperate attempt to find the daughter he has not seen for ten years unaware she was just a few yards behind him.

©Suffolk Free Press
Stunning fluke - long-lost daughter Lisa (circled) was passing with her mother and daughter just at the moment her father, Londoner Michael Dick, posed for our picture with other daughters Samantha (right) and Shannon.


Michael Dick scoured the streets of Sudbury, Suffolk, and looked through the electoral register searching for Lisa, 31, reports Metro.

After drawing a blank, he went to the Suffolk Free Press newspaper, which ran a story on his search.

The paper took a picture for the article, of Michael and his younger daughters Samantha, 22, and 10-year-old Shannon.

Lisa, a mother of three, discovered her father, 58, was trying to find her when friends mentioned the story.

And when she looked at the photograph, she realised she and her mother were just a few metres behind them and got in touch.

Dick, a carpenter from Bow, East London, said: 'I couldn't believe it when Lisa told me. It is just pure coincidence that she was walking past.'

He set off that evening to meet up with her and her children Ross, 13, Sam, 11, and Courtney, eight.

Lisa, Mr Dick's daughter from his first marriage, moved to Sudbury with her mother as a baby after her parents split up.

She was amazed to spot herself in the picture behind her father and two half-sisters.

Lisa said: 'I was 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 now lives in Colchester, Essex, had only gone to Sudbury on the day the picture was taken to visit her mother.

Dick added: 'We basically lost touch because I was living in London and she was in Suffolk.'