THIS week we report on a remarkable reunion between an Old Basing father and his German son.

Darren Goddard had not seen his son Lewis Helget for 25 years, and it was the ever-growing power of social media that brought them back together.

In 1988, Darren was a British soldier based in Germany when he suffered a back injury in a car crash that would end his career.

His resulting depression led to the breakdown of his marriage, and it is against this background that Darren made the heartbreaking decision to leave 18-month-old Lewis with his former partner Aggi, and return to the UK.

Contact between father and son was lost until very recently, when Darren discovered his son had been trying to find him via Facebook for four years.

It is just another example of the good that can be done with social media, despite the occasional horror stories we read in national newspapers.

In recent months, we have reported on how social media has helped to raise thousands of pounds for a family left devastated by a fatal fire in Popley.

We also reported how people in Basingstoke answered a desperate mother’s plea on Facebook by volunteering to search for her 11-year-old missing son.

That story had a happy ending, and so does this one.

The Gazette would like to wish Darren and Lewis all the best in getting to know each other after being apart for so long.

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