Caters Susan Walton (in chair) with six of her nine newly discovered siblings (clockwise from top) Janet Brown, Michael Sexton, Brenda Newman, Julie Marrow, John Sexton and Jacqueline Postill
Susan Walton spent her whole life thinking she was an only child unaware she had nine siblings living minutes from her home.
Susan was adopted when she was six months old and always longed for a brother or sister.
Now, at the age of 64, Susan has discovered she is the oldest of 10 children who live a few miles away from her house in Hull, East Yorkshire.
Despite sharing a postcode, she never met any of her siblings - Janet Brown, Michael Sexton, Brenda Newman, Julie Marrow, John Sexton, Jacqueline Postill, Christopher Sexton, Ann Sexton and Stephen Sexton.
Reunited with her long-lost family, retired supermarket worker Susan said: "I found out I was adopted when I was 13 and it was so unexpected, I had no idea I had brothers and sisters.
"I remember watching a programme about two sisters being reunited and I said it would be lovely if someone knocked on my door.
It was a bit lonely being an only child and I would have liked someone to play with. Then one day I got the letter from the adoption society.
"It's been a lovely shock meeting them all and it was lovely to know we all had the same mother and father.'
Susan with a photograph of her mother Pauline Sexton and brother John Sexton
Susan has a big family with her husband Malcom, 65, who served in the navy - six children with and 12 grandchildren.
But despite having her own large family, Susan always wondered if she had any siblings.
Little did she know that three of her sisters, Janet, Jacqueline and Brenda, had started looking for Susan after their mother, Pauline Sexton, died in April 2009, aged 82. The photographs show a remarkable resemblence between Susan and her mother.
Their father Herbert Sexton had died from a heart attack 23 years ago, aged 64.
After more than a year of searching, matching birth certificates and endless phone calls, the brothers and sisters have now met for the first time.
She said: "When I got the letter from an adoption society in Leeds, they told me I was the oldest of 10. It's wonderful and I couldn't ask for a better family."
About 20 years ago Susan's sister Janet Brown, 62, was told she had another sister, her parents' first-born child, before they were married.
She said: "For years and years, I tried to get my mum by herself to ask more questions. But the opportunity never arose.
"There always seemed to be someone there and I wasn't able to find out more about it. I told a couple of the others and when mum died, we decided to look for her.'
"We were more concerned for her because there are so many of us and it's a lot to digest. But it's brilliant.'
Brenda, 56, said Susan is very much like their mother.
She is more like our mother than any of us, she is our mother's double in so many ways - the way she talks, everything.
"We get on really well and we hit it off the moment we met. She made us feel so welcome and so at ease. It took us just over a year to find her and we nearly fainted when we realised she was only down the road.
"It's crazy how none of our paths have ever crossed."
Brenda said she is looking forward to spending many more happy times together as a family.
She said: "It's just a shame it didn't happen years ago. But it means everything."