Still desperately seeking my father, Richard

Grant McGowan with his daughter Rebecca and son. Photo / Supplied

An adopted expat's sick offspring has led him to hunt for his birth father - who is believed to have played for the junior All Blacks.

Grant McGowan grew up in Auckland but now lives in Essex, England. He has two young children with medical conditions and needs to find out his family health history.

McGowan's birth parents are understood to have been childhood sweethearts from adjoining farms on Three Mile Bush Rd in Whangarei. He has found his mother but not his father.

His 2-year-old daughter, Rebecca, has been admitted to hospital with a lung infection and her doctor thought she could hear a small murmur on her heart.

"She asked if there was any medical history of heart murmurs, but I couldn't give an answer as I don't know my birth father's medical history."

McGowan, 39, was born at National Women's Hospital in Auckland in 1971. He lived in Beach Haven, Birkdale and the East Coast Bays before travelling to England in 1993, where he met his wife, Marissa.

When his adopted father died in 2004, McGowan contacted Child Youth and Family for help with finding his birth parents.

He was told his mother, Sherrin MacPherson, came from Kawakawa in Northland. She was 21 when McGowan was adopted and now lives in Melbourne.

They have been in phone and email contact.

Notes from CYF showed his father's name was Richard and that he and Sherrin were childhood sweethearts.

"I was informed by my birth uncle, Don, that Richard possibly played as a junior for (Northland) Rugby Union and the All Blacks."

To speed up the search, he placed an ad in the New Zealand Herald classifieds titled "Looking for Richard".

McGowan has had one response from a man who thinks he knows someone who knows Richard. The desperate expat hoped more publicity would help him find his father.