The heartbreaking moment a man was able to meet with his biological family 40 years after being abandoned is going viral.

In September 1984, Jon Scarlett-Phillips was discovered in the toilet of a leisure center car park close to Milton Keynes, UK. Tragically, little Jon had been left there wrapped in a blanket and put in a shopping bag with his placenta still attached.

Jon’s birth mother had placed him the toilet and left.

Ultimately, three teenage girls heard Jon’s distressed cries and came to his rescue. They promptly called an ambulance and the baby’s life was saved.

That was four decades ago, and Jon – now a 40-year-old chef – is looking to reunite with his biological mother. To that end, he appeared on British TV show Long Lost Family: Born Without a Trace, hoping to get some answers to the questions that have plagued him his entire life.

Jon told the show: “I was found by three girls. Finding something like that at that age is absolutely crazy. I’m grateful, very grateful that they heard me and found me. They’re the ones that saved my life.”

Though he endured a nightmare start to life, Jon did benefit from a happy upbringing thereafter. He was adopted by a loving family and had a big sister named Debbie, but admitted to ruminating over the big question regarding his bio mom: “Why did she do it?”

After a tough period in his life, which included an accident that gave his adoptive mom brain damage, and a near-fatal drug overdose for Jon at the age of 18, he met his wife, Becky, who he credits for encouraging him to seek answers regarding his past.

Having signed up for the aforementioned show, Long Lost Family: Born Without a Trace, Jon found out that his birth mother had been 20 years old when she had him, and that she was still alive.

Not only that, but she had two young daughters when she fell pregnant with Jon.

Long Lost Family’s Ariel Bruce said: “I suspect she surprisingly found herself pregnant with Jon, and I think she couldn’t cope. When she left him, she was mentally in a very bad place.”

Heartbreakingly, Jon’s mother – whose name remains anonymous – determined she was not ready to meet her long lost son yet. His two half-sisters, however, did want to see him.

In an emotional clip filmed for the show, Jon is seen meeting his siblings for the first time. Their identities are hidden to protect their mother’s anonymity.

When the sisters met Jon, they had a message from their absent mother for him.

It read: “Hi, I’ve sent this message to the girls so they can let you know the reasons why I’m not with them today.

“Unfortunately, I feel unable, both physically and mentally, to come today following a long period of illness.”

The message from his mom went on: “It’s not a no Jon, it’s just time.”

Jon later told the show: “I feel a lot lighter. I feel a bit more full, as well. That emptiness has disappeared completely now. I’m a happy man.”