A MOTHER turned detective to bring the brother she barely knew back home so he could meet her three very special children.

And Herefordshire's first test tube triplets are pretty taken with Uncle Shane.

Paul, Faye, and David Thirlwall have just turned 18. Mum Shirley, aged 54, made them wait for a special present - a reunion with the brother she last saw 47 years ago. Shane Peterson left Hereford to make a new life in Australia when she was only four and has been just a photograph to her ever since. Then, out of the blue, Shane, now aged 69 and retired from his business in Queensland, called Shirley to say he was coming home - if he could.

Shirley said she knew him straightaway when they met this week and, once hugs were done, wasted no time in catching up.

The triplets were the biggest news. Shane met them for the first time that night at June's home in Hinton, Hereford. Paul is now a plumber, David a painter and decorator, and Faye works at a kennels.

They made headlines in 1988 as the first test tube triplets born into a Herefordshire family. Uncle Shane was the present they had to wait for - and all three agree he was worth it.