Christmas 'miracle' as son tracks down homeless dad after more than 10 years

Jason with his dad, who he hadn't seen since he was 12. Photo / Jason Kelly / Supplied

A young man has managed to track down and reunite with his homeless father more than a decade apart - all just in time for Christmas.

Liverpool man Jason Kelly hadn't seen his father David since he was a 12-year-old boy.

After Kelly's parents had split up, David slept rough on the streets for many years.

For years Kelly had wondered what happened to his father, with a photo of him from the late 1990s his only connection.

After making a number of inquiries, Kelly soon discovered David had been living at a particular address for a number of years.

Despite having a range of nerves and thoughts running through his body, on Christmas Eve Kelly took a chance and paid a visit to the address.

David in the 1990s and, right, a recent picture. Photo / Jason Kelly / Supplied

He knocked on the door where a woman in her 70s answered and confirmed David lives at the house but wasn't home.

Kelly was in the process of writing his number down when David returned.

The 23-year-old told the Liverpool Echo his now 67-year-old father was so shocked at his son's visit that he began to run away.

"I was shouting, 'Dad, it's me, Jason'," he said.

Jason with his dad, who he hadn't seen since he was 12. Photo / Jason Kelly / Supplied

"Eventually it started to sink in and I caught up to walk beside him.

"When he recognised me, he started asking after the family and he was trying to remember my birth date.

"At that point, he didn't want to look at me, as his eyes were welling up with tears."

The Christmas Eve miracle then saw the pair meet up on Christmas day with Kelly taking a plate of Christmas dinner over to David's house.

Kelly also gifted his father a mobile phone with his number saved so the pair could keep in touch.

Now he wants to help his father out financially and get him back on his feet.

While he was originally worried his father wouldn't want to see him, he said the search has been a miracle outcome.

"It's a miracle really," he said.

"When he was running off I thought, 'oh God'. It was the outcome I was fearing the most.

"But to find him before Christmas was absolutely amazing.

"I had that in mind and it's a miracle that it happened."