Woman abducted as a baby in the UK dies age 30 in her new homeland

A woman who was kidnapped from a UK hospital as a baby and later moved to New Zealand has died of cancer at the age of 30. Abbie Humphries was just three hours old when she was taken from the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham in 1994 by a woman posing as a nurse. The abduction triggered a 16-day nationwide search before she was found.

Following the ordeal, the Humphries family moved to New Zealand when she was 10 years old. As reported by the Nottingham Post, she had spoken in her teens about the kidnapping and how she learned about it. "My parents told me about it gradually as I grew up rather than all at once. It was drip-fed, really part of family conversation."

She told the Post that it was not until the family moved to Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand) that she fully understood the severity of the ordeal. "We were unpacking boxes and I saw the news clippings. That's when I realised how big it was. But it didn't spark any fear or anything like that. To be honest, I thought it was pretty cool."

Humphries began experiencing headaches in 2020 and was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. According to the BBC, her mother had died of breast cancer in 2020, just months before her diagnosis. Following her diagnosis, Humphries told the Sunday Post: "There's no point in being angry or blaming anything. We've just been incredibly unlucky."

Her husband, Karl Sundgren, announced her death in a Facebook post, saying: "Abbie was incredibly strong and her infectious smile will live on in our hearts forever." "She fought with incredible strength and grace for over four years and is finally at peace." A service to celebrate her life will be held in Auckland on Saturday. This article was originally published on Stuff and is reproduced here with permission.