A DARWEN traffic warden reunited his father with his long lost family during a recent trip to Poland after using the Internet to find them.

Nick Gisicz's dad Michael, 88, left his homeland in 1939 when he was a soldier in his twenties and had not seen his relatives for more than 60 years. They had thought he had perished in the war.

It was Nick's brother Steffan who decided to use the Internet to see if it was possible to trace his father's family tree and to their surprise they found he still had relatives living in the homeland.

The emotional reunion of the war veteran's relatives took place when Nick took his father over to Poland for the much anticipated meeting.

It had been feared that Michael Gisicz from the Shadsworth area of Blackburn, who suffers from a chronic heart disorder, would not be well enough to make the trip. Nick, 41, said: "Over the last couple of years my father's health had started to go down and he decided he wanted to trace his relatives while he still could."

And the story caught the interest of a local television crew who turned up to make a film of the reunion which was broadcast in Poland last Saturday.

Nick said: "We've had nothing but nice feedback about the film. Everyone who watched it admitted to crying and I can't wait for my copy of it to arrive."

Nick said: "We were taken to my father's family home and all his relatives were standing in the garden waiting for him. He spent the next few days renewing old acquaintances and visited the family home that was."

Nick found that his father had a surviving sister, Milka, and several nieces and nephews.

Nick said: "My father visited the cemetery where his relatives were buried and was able to pay his respects to them. Apparently it's customary to drink to loved ones so out came the bottles of vodka! "It was quite a moving experience for us and we saw a memorial to the Poles who had been killed during the war.

"Dad still talks Polish. He's still bilingual after all these years and has not lost his accent. It was a great visit."

Michael said: "It was a tearful moment for me but when I saw my sister in the garden I recognised her immediately and realised what a long time it had been since I had left her."