‘Baby Sophie’ appeals for parents to come forward, 17 years after being dumped in a public toilet block

REMEMBER ‘Baby Sophie’, the newborn abandoned in a public toilet block? Now she’s 17, and has made an extraordinary appeal.

SHE was the hours-old infant abandoned in a public toilet block, whose story captured hearts.

Seventeen years on, the girl known as ‘Baby Sophie’ has come forward in a fresh bid to find her biological parents.

In an extraordinary act of forgiveness, the girl dumped in the Victorian town of Swan Hill in 1998 says she has no hard feelings, she just wants to know where she came from.

After going through a name change to Sarah O’Sullivan once she was adopted, she said she still wants to meet her birth parents one day.

“It would fill that hole in my heart,” she tells A Current Affair.

“It would make me so happy.”

“I feel like everyone is on a journey and part of mine is to figure out what happened .. and how to live with what happened.”

All grown up. Sophie wants answers.

The Department of Human Services fostered her out as a baby.

After being found in a public toilet block in Swan Hill’s Riverside Park, she was estimated to be about two hours old. She was taken to the Swan Hill Hospital, where nurses named her Sophie.

She was then taken into Department of Human Services care.

It was discovered that baby Sophie had been born three weeks premature on or about April 9.

Five months later, Loddon Mallee regional director Margaret Wagstaff made a public appeal for her parents to come forward, saying the infant would be adopted out if they could not be traced.

“I think it would really help Sophie if her family could be involved in these plans, even if they are not in the position to look after Sophie,” Ms Wagstaff told Fairfax at the time.

In the end, she was adopted by Anne and Liam O’Sullivan in Melbourne’s east.

A television appeal for Sophie’s parents was made in 1998.

Sarah told ACA that she still has moments where she wonders “why” she was abandoned by her birth parents.

While she started asking her adopted parents Anne and Liam whether they were her real parents at the age of four, they told her she was adopted. They sat down with her and showed her all of the newspaper clippings about how she was abandoned in the toilet block when she turned 14.

Growing up, she has learnt to tap dance, play sport and continued to lead a normal life like any other teenager.

“I’ve definitely had my moments where I’ve just felt like Why don’t I know anything?,” Sarah said.

“It’s not fair. Why did it happen to me? All these ‘why’ questions.”

“Everyone has a story and it’s my time to tell my story.”

When asked how she would react if her wish to meet her birth parents came true, Sarah said she would see it as a time to make amends.

“I’d probably cry a little bit. I’d give her a hug. I’m in a loving family, I really want them to know that. I would really like to form a relationship with them. It’s a chance to make amends,” she said.

The Daily Mail reports Sarah has previously used an adoption reunion website to try to track them down herself.

“I am happy in a family but I need to know about my birth and who gave birth to me,’” she was quoted as saying.