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The last time Simon Tan saw his mother was when they were in Kowloon Park, just after his parents divorced and his father had won custody of him.

That was 25 years ago.

Now Mr Tan, who has lived in Britain since 1987, wants to find his mother.

He is appealing to  South China Morning Post  readers to help him find  Zeng Guimei , who he believes is still alive and living in Hong Kong.

Mr Tan, who has battled chronic medical problems all his life and is no longer in contact with any of his family in Britain or Hong Kong, said he was desperate to find her.

'It's Christmas now and everybody has their mum but me,' Mr Tan said.

He is estranged from his father, who lives in Southampton, and decided to find his mother after talking with a counsellor about how important she was to him.

Mr Tan, 28, has had a rough journey in life. He was born with a rare, painful tumour that impairs vision in his right eye.

At 17, he decided he did not want to live with his father, whom he said was 'not very loving', so he moved out of the house they shared with his stepmother and two stepsisters.

He has been working as a freelance college lecturer, but has just been hired as a senior policy officer for a local London borough council. Mr Tan's desperate search for his mother has been hampered by the fact that he knows little of his mother or his parent's marriage. His father and relatives have told him little.

He does know that she was born in 1950 in Shanghai and married his father there in 1975.

In 1979, they moved to Hong Kong and divorced in 1981. He remembers her having long, straight black hair and round glasses.

'She was thin and quite fragile. She was a beautiful lady,' he recalls. Mr Tan said he did not have any photos of her.

He has considered hiring a private detective to find her but he does not have enough money.  He holds out hope  his mother will also want to see him.

'There is the possibility that what my father said is true, about how my mother hated me, or how she dumped me,' Mr Tan said.

But 'I think I have the right to find out for myself'.

Anyone who may recognise his mother from his story can contact Mr Tan by e-mail at Simon Tan25@yahoo.co.uk.



Everybody has a mum but me, laments desperate son