JOY has turned to heartbreak for a Latvian World War Two refugee living in York who traced his long-lost sister.

Charlie Udris's sister Berta died of cancer before they could be re-united.

As previously reported in the Evening Press, Charles, of Acomb, York, had not seen his family for almost 60 years and said he had "given up hope."

But his daughter and son-in-law, Pam and Graham Bonsall, of Huntington, managed to find his relatives through the Internet.

They found he had two sisters, Berta and Alma, and a niece, Brigita, alive and well in Latvia.

They made contact and had planned a reunion trip in the summer.

But Charles, 78, recently got the tragic news that Berta had died of cancer.

He said: "I am OK, but it is very sad. After all these years we had found her again and now she is gone. It is such a shame she was not able to wait for me to get there."

Charles said he and his York-based family are still planning the trip to Latvia, where they will meet Alma, now 85, who, he says, is unwell and may not remember him.

They will also meet Berta's friends, who have helped to translate letters and phone calls between York and the Latvian capital, Riga.

Charles said: "I am really looking forward to it, meeting people I haven't seen for so long. Alma is not well and might not remember me, but I am still looking forward to seeing her. It is just sad Berta can not be there."

Charles, a baker, was forced into slave labour by the Nazis during the Second World War and made to bake bread for front-line troops.

After the war he was offered the chance to go back to Latvia, but fearing the Russian occupation, he came to England, landing in Hull.

He worked at an agricultural camp in Melbourne, near Pocklington, until he married his wife, Ivy Guest, in 1952.

The couple moved to York, and he worked for bakers Woodcock's, then Ovengloves, only retiring fully last Christmas.

- The original Evening Press article which told of Charles finding his family has since been translated into Latvian, and printed in a local newspaper sold in Riga.

Updated: 12:00 Thursday, June 27, 2002