A WOMAN'S search to find the mother who abandoned her in a North-East phone box is to be highlighted on television.

And while the TV crew were filming at The Northern Echo offices, Jane was surprised to be reunited with a former classmate.

As a two-day old baby, she was discovered in Darlington in July 1951.

Wearing a nightdress and wrapped in a blanket, she was found by a passer-by on his way to work.

She was named Jane Doe by the nurses who cared for her, because no one knew who her parents were.

Today, Jane has a new name and is a happily-married grandmother. At the moment, she does not want to reveal her new identity.

After her search was featured in The Northern Echo, she traced the man who found her, but is still no closer to finding her mother.

The BBC is making a programme about Jane's search and decided to film some of the show in The Northern Echo's library, where she started her quest to find her mother.

And while there she discovered she had been in the same class at school as the newspaper's librarian, Christine Watson.

Mrs Watson said: "I thought before she arrived that we might know each other because I was born a few days after her, but I assumed she would have been adopted outside the area.

"When she arrived, we were chatting away and I asked her which she school she went to. We then realised we had both been to Corporation Infants and were in the same class at Central."

When the film crew realised they had found one of Jane's classmates, they decided to reshoot the film.

The programme will be shown on the BBC in March.