40 years to find my birth father
Life Changing
BBC
4.6 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Growing up, Karine Burns always knew she was adopted, and that her mother had been sent over to the UK from Ireland.
Karine had a joyous childhood, loved dearly by her Scottish parents. But after the arrival of her first child, she started to think seriously about her birth mother - about how hard it must have been to give a baby up for adoption, so far from home.
Her mammoth 20-year search for her birth parents involved passionate appeals, detective work and rejection - until a breakthrough changed everything, just in the nick of time…
Karine tells her incredible story to Life Changing’s Dr Sian Williams.
Producer: Tom Alban.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | On BBC Sounds, there are podcasts to help you look after your body and your mind. |
| 0:12.7 | From increasing your immunity to feeling more confident. |
| 0:16.6 | Or tips on how to focus. |
| 0:18.5 | Sorry, what will you say? |
| 0:19.7 | If it matters to you, it matters to us. |
| 0:22.6 | Feel good inside of them. |
| 0:24.3 | With What's Up Docs. |
| 0:25.9 | And Complex with Kimberly Wilson. |
| 0:27.9 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.7 | You're about to listen to the latest series of Life-changing. |
| 0:34.6 | Episodes will be released weekly wherever you get your podcasts. But if you can't wait, you can listen to the latest episodes a whole month earlier than anywhere else. First, on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:48.6 | Hello and welcome to the series that explores powerful moments that transform everything. |
| 0:55.1 | For many, it's the feeling of holding your first baby in your arms |
| 0:59.0 | and knowing that life has just changed forever. |
| 1:03.3 | Our guest, Karine Burns, felt it. |
| 1:06.5 | But as she looked into her son's eyes, there was a big question there too. |
| 1:11.0 | Who held me? |
| 1:13.1 | And why was I placed up for adoption? |
| 1:15.9 | Karin wrote to us about being taken into a loving family at just a few days old, |
| 1:21.3 | yet still needing to get to those answers. |
| 1:24.2 | But her search was not an easy one. |
... |
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