Sue Porter appreciates the value of a family more than most.

Given up by her birth mother, she only discovered she had two sisters when she approached a charity which helps people find lost families.

Now she has begun a fund-raising scheme to support the Children's Society, which reunited her with the relatives she never knew she had.

The Friends of the Children's Society Post Adoption and Care Project can help pay expenses needed to initiate a search.

Sue, 55, from Hassocks, said: "It's added a family that I didn't have. I think my sisters also feel that are not on their own any more."

Sue met sister, Barbara Godfrey, 52, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, at a tearful reunion in 1998.

She tracked down her other sister, Carol Kersbergan, 53, to Vancouver, Canada and all three met at Heathrow a year later.

Sue, who was brought up at the Fairlight Children's Home in Rustington, before moving in with her aunt and grandmother when she was ten, said she was overcome with emotion.

She said: "Meeting them was a bit scary but I had done the looking so I was prepared.

"They weren't prepared so they were the ones with tears.

"It was quite amazing when I first saw Carol at the airport and I think there were too many emotions to express in words.

"We think alike and people say we look alike."

Sue married accountant Brian and has two children, Barry, 32 and Evelyn, 29, as well as three grandchildren.

She regularly sees Barbara although she has only managed to visit Carol once since she came to the UK for a ten-day holiday three years ago.

Sue said: "It's difficult living so far away but we visited Canada two years ago and met up again then.

"We get a great deal of joy from seeing each other.

"They couldn't believe it and they were delighted that I looked for them.

"What difference has it made to my life? My husband would say the phone bill."

She warned that reunions did not always go to plan.

She said: "It's not always such a good story as I have had.

"Ninety-five per cent are but there are always those that don't work.

"Some people have already died and some people don't want to be found for various reasons."

Sue and her sisters met their birth mother, Mary, 72, when Carol flew over to the UK.

Sue said: "She found it very difficult and we've only stayed in touch a little since then.

"But I think you have to view it from the other person's side and it must have been very difficult for her."

To contact the Children's Society Post Adoption and Care Project, call 020 7732 9089.