You can now help a South African woman deal with her very own version of Mamma Mia! as she attempts to track down her biological father.
The 2008 flick jukebox musical romantic comedy film involves US actress Amanda Seyfried, who in her quest to meet her birth father, secretly invites three men from her mother’s past in the hopes of her real father escorting her down the aisle on her big day.
This story is now playing out in real life as Diana Becker, from Hoedspruit in Limpopo, is preparing to meet her dad for the first time at the age of 35.
According to the UK’s Daily Mail, the businesswoman has launched a heartfelt GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to travel to England to meet her biological father.
After she managed to track him down on Facebook, the mother of a three-year-old girl told the publication that she needs £580 (R11100) to go towards the cost of flights, a UK Visa and travel insurance.
Diana, who is pictured with her husband, achieved a ‘breakthrough’ in her search for her biological father in July this year.
Becker explained to the Daily Mail that she first came into contact with her birth mother as a teenager and subsequently discovered that her biological father could be one of three possible men, with her story bearing remarkable similarities to that of the Abba-inspired show.
She was born in March 1983 but 15 months later, due to unforeseen circumstances, her biological mother had to give her up.
Becker was then adopted by an Afrikaans couple with whom she remains close to this day.
Although she said she had a happy childhood, she began to grow curious about her biological parents in her teenage years.
“With the help of my folks and the social workers I located my biological mom just a few weeks before my 18th birthday,” she told The Daily Mail.
Through her biological mother, she then met a man who she believed was her father, but this turned out to not be the case.
“It was during this stage that I learnt that at the time of my conception my biological mother had also been dating two other men, but it was unclear if either of them was still alive, or indeed which one was my father.”
Her biological mother then died and Becker thought that she would never know her father's true identity.
She then discovered that one of the men had been an acclaimed South African long-distance athlete.
In a remarkable twist of fate, the man, Daniel (Danny) De Chaumont-Saunderson turned out to be an accomplished athlete who won the London to Brighton road race in 1986.
With the use of social media, she managed to find De Chaumont-Saunderson, a paternity test was conducted which revealed that he was indeed her father.
“This moment was better than winning the lotto. I am now busy saving for the trip of a lifetime to finally meet Daniel in person and surprise him in his hometown.”
According to The Daily Mail, De Chaumont-Saunderson now lives with his wife and two children in Cockermouth, Cumbria, where he relocated after leaving South Africa more than 20 years ago.
He was 23 years old when he first learned that his wife was pregnant, and is now 58.