The challenge on Twitter simply said, "Tell me a decision that changed the trajectory of your life." Further stipulations meant respondents couldn't say choosing their faith, getting married, or having a child. So. What would your answer be? NUI Galway Law student Anna Lee Dowling tweeted an answer that was pretty memorable: "Someone found baby me in a train station in China so instead of dying I ended up in Ireland lol". Anna Lee spoke to Ray D’Arcy about that train station, growing up in Portlaoise and the attractions of Criminal Justice.

The train station where Anna Lee was found in is in a city in south central China called Changsha, home to over 8 million people, so it’s a busy place. And it’s big. In Ray’s words, "it’s ginormous." To which Anna Lee replied, "It’s a lot bigger than Heuston, isn’t it?" Baby Anna Lee had a haemangioma on her leg:

"Some people colloquially call it a strawberry birth mark. And it was very badly infected. So, I was left at the train station. And as I kind of mentioned on Twitter, left to be found really. I could have been left anywhere, but the busiest train station – I mean, someone was going to find me and look after me."

Anna Lee spent a month to six weeks in an orphanage before being adopted through International Orphan Aid Ireland:

"They set up a programme alongside Dr Brian Denholm for Chinese children that needed medical attention, really and we all came to Ireland here to be adopted and to receive that medical attention that we all needed."

As Anna Lee said, when her birth mother left her in that train station in Changsha, she wanted her to be found. Ray wondered how that made Anna Lee feel.

"You do hear an awful lot of, kind of, horror stories, but I, kind of, I’ve always had this outlook on life that I’ve nearly been given a second chance. That, you know, God had a plan for me – or whoever you believe in – and things kind of were meant to work out the way that they did."

When did Anna Lee’s parents, Ger and Noeleen, sit her down and tell her she was adopted, Ray wanted to know. There was no defining moment, she told him:

"It’s kind of something that I’ve always known, but it was never really a negative thing, you know? Other people, perhaps in school, or neighbours, or anything like that, nothing was ever mentioned to me about it. It was just something – it’s as if I would say I’m 19. It’s just another fact about myself. There was never really a clear moment I remember, it’s just a thing I’ve always known."

Anna Lee has been back to China a few times, most recently in 2018, when she visited Beijing, Shanghai and Changsha – where she visited that train station. But it was Shanghai that made her think of a certain county back in Ireland:

"In my head, I think of Shanghai as the Cork of China, you know? Everyone from Shanghai says, 'We’re the real capital and you have to come here.’"

It was an emotional trip for Anna Lee, but one that she feels she needed. She told Ray she got some closure from it and it was important to be able to say that she’d gone back to her roots. She stood outside the train station in Changsha and cried:

"Unfortunately, I think my story would be quite common and a lot of people that were there and going in and out of the train station, without me ever saying a word, kind of knew what was happening."

It was one of those life moments, Anna Lee says. And quite the life for someone who’s still only 19. You can hear the full conversation between Ray and Anna Lee Dowling by going here.