It is like we have known each other all our lives.

Those were the sentiments of Suffolk grandmother Myra Brown today as she recounted the incredible moment she was told she had a brother – after more than 60 years unaware he existed.

The 69-year-old, of Kesgrave, knew she had a different father to her other siblings and asked her nephew to begin looking into her family tree a few years ago.

But it was not until last year when new records were released that she was given the news that she had a brother called Bert Viner, who it emerged was living in Redruth, Cornwall.

“I was really chuffed about it but you never know how they are going to take the news,” she said.

“I just burst into tears because I have always felt there was something there.”

Contact was made between the two families after the discovery and the siblings met for the first last month in Cornwall.

This weekend, Bert, 67, travelled up to Suffolk.

He said: “It was really surreal (the first meeting). You don’t quite know what to do or say for the first minute or two but now it is like I’ve known her for 67 years and it has been a month really.”

Myra, of Yewtree Grove, added: “Everybody’s really pleased for both of us.”

“The whole family there has been absolutely marvellous to me.”

“We are just so glad that we have met, just absolutely over the moon and my whole family are so pleased and happy. It seems like we have known each other forever. We are just so close.”

Bert and Myra’s dad, who died in 2002, was called George Viner. It is believed he was serving in the army when he met Myra’s mum, Nita Harvey, who had been widowed.

Myra, who has five grandchildren and one great grandchild, found out she had a different dad when she was 18 and despite not meeting him, she was told by her sisters that he was a “lovely and funny” man.

Although she knows little about George, she said she has been thrilled to meet Bert and his family and also to see the similarities in appearance with family members.