Actor Vauxhall Jermaine finds foster mum after Twitter appeal

An actor is to be reunited with his former foster mum after launching a Twitter appeal to track her down.

Vauxhall Jermaine said he had lived with Terri Sleightholme in Nottingham for about a year in the 1980s.

His plea, shared more than 3,000 times, was seen by Ms Sleightholme's cousin, who put the pair in touch.

Mr Jermaine said they planned to meet next week, but the reunion was almost scuppered as an email had ended up in his junk mail folder.

He received so many responses that a PR firm offered to help him wade through hundreds of messages.

They found the email from Ms Sleightholme's cousin in his account's spam folder.

"When Noir et Noire (the PR firm) first got in touch and offered their services for free, I was just glad of the help," he said.

"But then they found the all-important email in my junk folder and thank goodness they did."

The actor, who has appeared in Channel 4 dramas This is England '90 and The Virtues, had turned to Twitter after social services in Nottingham were unable to find any record of Ms Sleightholme.

He said she was his earliest memory and "the closest thing I experienced to mother-son love".

He said the pair, who last saw each other when he was "about four or five", spoke on the phone on Saturday and had made plans to meet in Yorkshire, where Ms Sleightholme now lives, later this week.

Mr Jermaine told the BBC: "When we spoke it was a sense of relief. It was nice to let her know what an impact she'd had on me and that I'd turned out OK.

"She told me she was so happy for me and said she had remembered seeing a mental strength in me at that young age and had no doubt I would be alright.

"I just want to thank everyone who responded to the appeal. It's been bizarre."

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