“We don’t not want any further contact and further attempts will be ignored.”
Just hours into his life, Jono Lancaster was abandoned by his birth parents.
While he was still in the hospital, Jono was diagnosed with Treacher Collins Syndrome, it was at this moment his parents walked out. As if things couldn’t get any harder, when he finally reached out to his birth parents twenty years later, he was told to never reach out again.
Jono’s condition meant the bones and tissues in his face grew at a different rate.
His biological parents abandoned him back in 1984 when he was only 36-hours-old, reports Mail Online.
Sadly, the newborn was placed into social care and was later adopted by Jean Lancaster who brought him up.
Jono’s childhood was tough. Not only was he abandoned by his birth parents but he was also subject to unforgivable bullying and cruelty as a result of how he looked.
Now, Jono works as a model, an author, and an inspirational speaker, and has finally come to terms with his appearance and learned to love what makes him unique.
Jono credits his adoptive mum, Jean, as being his saving grace.
He says that Jean, who is now 81, made him the person he is today.
Speaking to the Mail Online, Jono said: “She always told me that she couldn’t help but smile when she first saw me and she felt an instant connection when she held me.”
When Jono reached his 20s, after years and years of rejection, bullying, and hardship, he says he finally found himself in a ‘really good place’ and he began thinking once again of his birth parents.
Eventually he decided to find out who they were and to reach out. He spoke to the after-adoption agency who was able to share records with Jono about his biological parents. He wrote to them saying that he would love to meet up.
But just two weeks later he received a letter back which read: “Regarding this subject, we do not want any contact and further attempts will be ignored.”
Speaking about the rejection, Jono said: “It hurt, but I took pride in that I tried and with that support that I had around me and the mindset that I had, I went on in life full of love and grateful for the life that they gave me.”
Earlier this year, he also published his first book, Not All Heroes Wear Capes.
Such an inspiration.
