A woman who through her dad has been dead for more than 30 years has tracked him down 11,500 miles away with just his first name to work with.
Emotional Sharnee Butler manage to locate a Brit called 'Noel' and has posted their first-ever message exchange on TikTok with a meeting now planned.
The mum from Christchurch, New Zealand was told from a young age that her father had passed away.
But trusting her gut feeling that he was actually alive, she set about investigating - and eventually found out she had be told a lie.
She spent 'years and years' searching before coming across a 'Noel' who she thought could be her dad.
Sharnee didn't drop the bombshell straight away but the pair have been speaking and now she is fundraising to try and fly out to see him - and perform a DNA test.
"This is going to sound super odd. And very personal but I need to ask. When you were living here in Christchurch/New Zealand, did you sleep with any women?’" she asked him in the messages.
"My mother who I deeply and dearly love has given me your name so I’ve done years and years of research and you fit all these descriptions…I’m so very sorry that this all seems very strange."
Noel, from Wales, said the message was ‘very intriguing’.
He soon asked if her mother's name was Dale - confirmation that she had been waiting for.
"So do you really think I could be your dad?" he asked.
"This is all so so crazy, so so crazy. I’m, shaking, I’m crying. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time. Yes Dale is my mum! Holy moly," she replied.
The exchange quickly went viral on TikTok, racking up almost 9million views.
"I grew up thinking he was dead, when I was old enough, I knew something wasn't right, and nobody had answers," she told FEMAIL.
"I had so many questions but there was never any answers."
Now she is desperate to meet and hopes those inspired by her story can help her visit the UK - and make absolutely certain that Noel is her father.
"I feel weird doing this, but there would be absolutely no way I could potentially afford to meet this man and do DNA by myself!," she posted on fundraising page GiveALittle.
"Please, help me meet my potential Dad. I grew up all of my life being told he wasn't alive, I knew I just knew something wasn't right. Something was off, I've spent years, months, weeks, days, hours looking for said man.
"All I had was a name, and was told he was absolutely sports mad. That's all I had. Family knew nothing, nothing at all.
"One night, just 4 ish months ago I just thought I'd look his name up on social media, with a common name I thought this would be absolutely impossible to find, I mean what if he was dead?
"Anyway, I stumbled across this page and scrolled through to find everything was sports, sports, sports, lived in Christchurch 1990, so I just bit the bullet and messaged him. To find out it's HIM!!! And, he had absolutely no idea about me, at all. NOTHING
"I need to meet this man, do DNA with this man and start making memories with this man. I have young children that could be his grand children, he has other children that could be my siblings. Please help."
