A BROTHER and sister have been reunited after nearly 40 years - only to find they had been living just 300 yards from each other.

Ken Whitty, 64, even discovered he had walked past younger sister Yvonne's house and had seen her in her garden, never knowing it was his sister.

He has spent the New Year introducing Yvonne, 62, to her new extended family in Reddish. Ken and Yvonne grew up together in Ordsall, Salford, but their parents died when they were young and they were placed into the care of a family friend.

They stayed in touch after Ken left home at 21. But they lost contact when he went to visit her house in Moss Side and found it had been demolished in a slum clearance programme.

Both went their separate ways, never knowing what had happened to one another.

Ken became a joiner, met and married his wife Carolyn and had four children and six grandchildren.

Yvonne also married and had four children and 10 grandchildren.

After several failed attempts to contact his sister down the years, Ken wrote to the Manchester Evening News In Touch column just before Christmas asking for help.

He said: "I thought, it's Christmas, I'm 65 next year and I've got to do something. I just had to do it this year. I didn't even know if Yvonne was still alive."

Yvonne said: "It's so nice to see Ken again. It's been such a long time. I'm just amazed that we've been living so close. It's just so overwhelming."

When Ken's letter appeared in the M.E.N. he received a phone call from an old school friend and five minutes later the phone rang again and the voice said: "Hello, this is Yvonne".

"It happened just like that", said Ken. "I couldn't believe it." But he was even more astonished to discover Yvonne had been living on Gorton Road - just 300 yards from his house in Wentworth Road.

Ken added: "I've walked past her house lots of times and I've even seen her in the garden. I have walked past her in the street and never realised it was my sister.

"We used to live in Chorlton but moved to Reddish about seven years ago because our daughter lives nearby."

Ken's daughter Nicola Dawes said: "It has been the only thing my dad has wanted for a long time."

Ken and Yvonne will tomorrow visit the grave of their father George, an engineer who died in 1952 and mum Mary, who died five years later.