This is the touching moment a brother and sister were finally reunited after 45 years of living on opposite sides of the planet.
Siblings Tony Beckett, 69, and Mary Dunstan, 72, last saw each other in 1979 before Mrs Dunstan moved to Adelaide, Australia.
The pair emotionally reunited at Norwich train station on Tuesday afternoon after 45 years of living apart on April 16.
In pictures of their first meeting in decades, Mr Beckett had tears in his eyes as he warmly engulfed his sister in a hug.
Mr Beckett, from Cantley, Norfolk, said: ‘I didn’t realise it had been so long. Now the moment is here, I am nervous as hell.
This is the very emotional moment that siblings Tony Beckett and Mary Dunstan met for the first time since 1979
![In pictures of their first meeting in decades, Mr Beckett had tears in his eyes as he warmly engulfed his sister in a hug](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/18/11/83800697-13322969-image-a-13_1713435586060.jpg)
In pictures of their first meeting in decades, Mr Beckett had tears in his eyes as he warmly engulfed his sister in a hug
‘We had a great childhood and we were very close.
‘Our father was a herdsman on the farm, Mary trained as a nurse at the old Norfolk and Norwich, and I became a porter at St Andrews Hospital in Thorpe.’
Following the death of Mrs Dunstan’s husband in 2021 and Mr Beckett’s wife in 2023, the siblings knew they had to be reunited soon.
Mrs Dunstan ‘began getting the pennies together’ to take the 22-hour flight back to the UK and arrived two weeks ago.
She said: ‘We left as we thought we’d have a better life for our kids in Australia and we didn’t make a mistake.
‘All our children have done well – there are no regrets.
‘But I’ve missed my family a lot, especially Tony as we were the closest out of the siblings in terms of age. We fought like cats and dogs, but we were all very close.’
Tony also hadn’t seen his niece Sam since just after she was born.
The last time Mrs Dunstan visited their hometown was in October 1979, shortly after Sam’s birth.
![The last time Mrs Dunstan visited their hometown was in October 1979, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Sam Raven, who is now grown up and accompanied her on the trip back. L to R: Sam, Tony and Mary](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/18/11/83800695-13322969-image-a-14_1713435618328.jpg)
The last time Mrs Dunstan visited their hometown was in October 1979, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Sam Raven, who is now grown up and accompanied her on the trip back. L to R: Sam, Tony and Mary
![Mary Dunstan and her daughter, Sam Raven, coming through the barriers at Norwich Train Station](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/18/11/83800699-13322969-image-a-15_1713435660637.jpg)
Mary Dunstan and her daughter, Sam Raven, coming through the barriers at Norwich Train Station
Mrs Dunstan cared for her husband who was living with dementia for the last ten years with the strain preventing her from even considering an earlier reunion.
Mr Beckett said his mortgage and living costs had prevented him from taking a trip to Australia.
The family will be getting together and reliving memories over the next week.
A lot has changed since their childhood on the farm together – as the site of the farm itself has now become part of the city’s northern distributor road.
Tony and Mary are not the only siblings who have reunited after many decades apart.
In February, twin sisters Maurilia Chavez and Andrea Lopez met each other after 81 years apart after being orphaned, eventually finding each other through DNA testing.
And Diane Ward and Mary McLaughlin reunited in June 2022 for the first time in 55 years, just months after discovering they were related.
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