| abstract | - Martin Andrew Downes (né Lynch) was the son of Bet Lynch. Bet got pregnant with Martin when she slept with a man called Joe Mason when she was only sixteen. Unable to take care of him, she gave Martin up for adoption to the Downes family of Eccles. Many years later Bet cried as she told Irma Barlow about the day that she watched from behind the bedroom curtains as the corporation van drove off with the baby. In July 1974, Martin decided to meet his real mother and travelled to Weatherfield with his army colleague Steve Baker to find her. Martin knew that she was a barmaid and that her name was Elizabeth and this was enough to lead him to the Rovers, but repulsed by her overt sexual nature he left the pub without informing her of his identity. In April 1975, Bet got the devastating news from Steve that Martin had died in action in Northern Ireland. Although she never knew him, Bet felt that she'd accomplished something through him and took his death hard; she considered taking her own life with a load of aspirins until Eddie Yeats stopped her and made her tell him about Martin. When Bet was burgled in 1980, her only photograph of Martin was stolen. Bet was devastated as she knew it was the frame the thief was after and the picture would just be discarded. Ten years later, Bet had another uncomfortable reminder of what she'd lost when Ivy Brennan, using a Medium, was given a message from a Martin, who she supposed was Martin Platt and thought he was going to be killed in a car crash. Overhearing Martin warning Ivy about panicking people with her spiritualism, Bet was overcome as her Martin had died in a car crash and the name Elizabeth was mentioned by Ivy's Medium. Bet then broke down and told her husband Alec Gilroy about Martin Downes.
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