Two brothers have been reunited through Facebook after losing touch and spending quarter of a century living on opposite sides of the world. David Horner, 53, and his younger brother Stuart, 49, lost contact with each other after their father's funeral in 1989, following which Stuart travelled with the RAF before settling in New Zealand. David, from Sheffield, south Yorkshire, moved house, and despite both of them trying to contact the other, they failed to do so until earlier this year, when they finally met after finding each other through Facebook. David Horner, 53, left, and his brother Stuart, 49, were reunited after losing touch for quarter of a century . The boys lost touch after their father's funeral in 1989, when Stuart Horner joined the RAF and went abroad . David, a retired chef, said: 'He looks totally different.  I don't know if I'd recognise him passing in the street.' His younger brother, who lives in New Zealand and no longer works for the RAF, explained how they lost touch. 'Our dad was our point of contact, so after he died we lost that,' Stuart said.  'I struggled to grieve after losing my dad, and threw myself into work. 'I travelled around a lot, so I was not easy to track down, and David had also moved.' While Stuart sought to lose himself as he struggled with his grief, his older brother never forgot him, and each year bought a birthday card for Stuart that he wrote but could not post. He said: 'All these years I never forgot his birthday.  I bought him a card every year and used to write him emotional messages. 'It helped when I was ill and had two strokes - it gave me someone to turn to.' Every year, David Horner bought his 'baby brother' a birthday card, which he wrote and stored away for him . When the brothers eventually spoke over the phone, David said: 'There weren't many words - we just sobbed' 'Found out I have cancer again': David's 2005 card tells of his health battles, adding: 'Wish you were here xx' But despite his faith that one day he would see his younger brother again, he had moments of doubt. 'In 2012 I began to lose faith and wrote in his birthday card "I doubt we'll see each other again",' he said. But the following year after doing some research on the internet he found his niece, Stuart's daughter Tiffany, now 21, on Facebook. David said: 'I contacted her to see if he was her father and incredibly she said Yes.  I couldn't believe it. But the happy ending was postponed when either Tiffany or Stuart wrote down David's email address wrong. 'Unbeknownst to me, Stuart wrote me this long emotional email but it didn't get to me,' David said. 'That year I wrote in his card "I guess this is goodbye - I tried to get in touch but I haven't heard anything, so I suppose you're not interested."' Eventually, however, he made contact with Tiffany again, giving her his telephone number, and this time she put the two brothers in touch. Last year's card tells of David's despair as he signs of saying 'Thought I had found you but maybe not xx' So close: David said he wished his brother had been around to talk to as he battled with health problems . This year's card bears the message 'Wish I could have time with you' - and David's wish was finally granted . 'Stuart called me - I honestly couldn't believe it,' David said.  'When he rang there weren't many words exchanged - we just cried. 'I thought I was dreaming and when someone pinched me I'd wake up.' After they spoke, Stuart and his partner Lara Franklin, 41, flew 11,000 miles from their home in Wellington to Britain to visit David, who hadn't been well at his home in Sheffield. David, who suffered two strokes and was hospitalised four years ago for a lung condition, said he felt lucky he survived his illnesses to see his brother and sobbed as his sibling's car pulled up outside his house. He said: 'I was scared we wouldn't ever see each other again, but I never gave up hope. We're definitely not losing touch again.' Finally, he presented his younger brother with the 25 birthday cards he hadn't been able to send him. 'Sitting down to read the birthday cards together made us both very emotional,' David said. 'I never really got over my dad's death and I clung to the hope I would see Stuart again - which is shown in the messages I wrote to him. 'Some years I would write about what I'd been through, and others I would just sign off 'Love, your brother'. 'Stuart has quite a stiff upper lip through years of working with the RAF, but he got very upset reading them.'
David Horner, 53, and his brother Stuart, 49, last saw each other in 1989 . After their father's funeral, Stuart Horner joined the RAF and went travelling . He eventually settled in New Zealand; meanwhile David had moved house . The brothers spent 25 years trying to find each other but failed to do so . Every year, David bought and wrote a birthday card for his younger brother . In 2012, he found Stuart's daughter on Facebook and gave her his email . Tiffany gave her father David's email address, but had taken it down wrong . Finally the brothers made contact again and Stuart called from New Zealand . They sobbed over the phone before a reunion in David's Sheffield home .