A video posted by Canberra radio presenter Ryan Jon as an emotional thank you to his biological mother ahead of Mother's Day has now been viewed more than five million times.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The breakfast host for Hit 104.7 posted the video on the radio station's Facebook page, explaining that he was adopted.
Mother's Day always brought up the same feelings about his birth mother, Julie, who he has never met. That is, that he was forever grateful to her for giving him the gift of life and wanting him to grow up happy and well looked-after.
His birth mother left him a letter in which she says she became pregnant unexpectedly and believed she didn't have "the time or maturity to be a great mum".
"And she sort of implies that she didn't have the best upbringing and she wanted to make sure that her child had every opportunity available so she thought the best thing to do would be to would be to give me up for adoption," he said, in the video.
"It's 2017, I'm almost 30 and I'm really happy I'm here."
His adoptive parents Mandy and Rod Dunn couldn't have children, so Ryan was a gift for them after nine years of trying for their own child.
His birth mother was 28 and living in a share house when she became pregnant. He was born in Melbourne and adopted at just six weeks.
He had heard stories of women who had given up their children for adoption feeling guilty, as if it was a cowardly thing to do. But Ryan said he felt just the opposite.
"You've given someone the gift of life," Ryan said.
He had never met his birth mother but hoped she might see the video.
"I would love to look my birth mother in the eye and just say how thankful I am, for literally everything," he said, becoming emotional in the video.
He was concerned his mother, however, might not want to be found. He did not expect anything from her or had any desire to create a difficult situation for her.
He simply wanted to thank her and wish her a happy Mother's Day. And he had the full support of his adoptive parents, whatever course he took.
"They're not my biological parents but they're my mum and dad and always will be," he said.
Ryan said his video had thrown up some "cold leads" but that was just the start.
"I still have thousands of emails to go through, so it's terrifying to think one might be there that could be the key," he said.
Ryan said the greatest feedback he had received from the video was that many other adopted children felt the same way as him but, until now, had felt alone in their emotions.
