Merrilees Ritchie describes it as an “out of body experience”. It felt as if she was watching from above her kitchen table in Albany, Western Australia, as her brother explained to her that the pair of them had been adopted as babies, nearly 40 years before.

Over a cup of tea he revealed they also had different biological mothers. They were not biologically related.

By the time her brother made the revelation, 32 years ago, their adoptive mother had been dead for 10 years. Ritchie had kept a photograph of her up on the kitchenette. “I looked at the photo and just thought: ‘You liar, you liar, why didn’t you tell me?’”

After her brother’s disclosure, she has spent years jumping through hoops trying get hold of crucial documents that would help her claim back her identity. She even had to pay for her real birth certificate, since adoptees were given fabricated versions with their adoptive parents’ names on them.