Steve Hydes abandoned at Gatwick Airport toilet 30 years ago searches for birth parents

Steven Hydes, the baby who was abandoned at the Gatwick Airport ladies' toilet 30 years ago has launched an appeal for his birth parents. Despite the mass media coverage when he was first found, he is no closer to finding his father and mother.

Left dressed in two baby grows and wrapped in a blanket when he was only 10 days old on 10 April 1986, Hydes was found by a person working at duty-free. The person said Hyde was clean and appeared content and well looked after.

He was nicknamed "Gary Gatwick" after the airport's teddy bear mascot as he did not have any identification papers on him. Hydes, who spent time in foster care before being adopted, says that he had a fantastic childhood growing up with three sisters.

Hydes has a partner and children. He assured his birth parents that they should not be worried about coming forward as he has no ill feelings towards them. "If anyone was to come forward from my biological family, obviously they may have moved on now they might have children of their own and have a whole life and I don't intend to destroy that, I don't just want to turn up."

He said: "I don't want them to feel afraid to come forward, I'm not an angry person, I'm not in it for that." Hydes said that he only wanted to know why he was left behind. "It's the not knowing ... why it happened and things like that I really want to know."

"To me, it's just a blank space that everyone else seems to have. There's also things like your medical history that others take for granted and I don't have that. I'd just like to know what happened, it will explain more about myself, complete me in a way," he added.

Hydes is being helped by the Missing Family organisation. They believe that two DNA matches have been found. People who had their DNA tested for a family website could provide the link but have not logged on to see their messages.

Gail Hickman from Missing Family said: "Right now we have two close relatives for Steven that we cannot contact as they have not logged into their profile to collect their messages, which is not only frustrating but greatly hinders the search."