Janet Buttel has been on a life-long search for her younger brothers as she doesn’t know what happened to them for almost seven decades.

She was racing to find her two brothers, Maxwell Philip Turner and Lawrence Alexander Turner after being informed that she has months, if not weeks, to live after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

The way that the pair reunited is extraordinary, and it's all thanks to a spirited 71-year-old woman from Geelong, Victoria.

Judy Moore attended the same primary school as Buttel's brother Max and distinctly remembered a conversation between herself and Max saying that he knew his name to be something different.

"I recall Max saying at school: 'My real name is Maxwell Phillip Turner.' Now, I don't know how many times he would have said it. I don't know how it would have come up," Moore said.

After Moore saw the lost brothers story on social media, she made the mental connection and contacted the three sisters from Max's adopted family. After using Facebook, she eventually came into contact with his half sister Dulcie Varney. 

Max passed away in 2016, but his half sister Dulcie Varney spoke to Rodgers about the family search.

"She said to me, 'Lawrie you have a sister who's trying to find you'. I just couldn't believe it, it was just so awesome and emotional," he said.

Janet has since reconnected with her younger brother Lawrence Rodgers, 69, who received an unexpected phone call from his sister who was desperate to find him.

"I knew I had a sister, but I never thought I'd see the day when I'd find her," Mr Rodgers said to the ABC. 

Rodgers now lives in central Queensland and was adopted by the Rodgers family from a young age. He grew up on a small dairy farm in south-west Victoria and was close to his brother Max, who lived up the road. As the boys were adopted by two sisters who were distantly related to their mother, the pair spent childhood holidays together on the family farms.

"It was always a comforting thought to know I've got a brother but, as for the rest of them, we didn't know anything other than that there were three of them," he said.

"I was very happy and so was Max, to think that we had each other."

Rodgers explained that the first call to Buttel was extremely emotional.

"I said to her, 'How you going sister?'. She was just overawed. She couldn't believe it," he said.

"I was lucky to get a word in, she was so excited. I was hanging on to the end of the phone and Janet was going 50 to the dozen."

Rodgers hopes that the discovery gives his sister comfort as she undergoes chemotherapy.

"I have found someone I thought was already dead and gone. I have a sister — I don't know for how long — but it's so good to think there's two of us," he said.

"She said to me: 'You thought you were the only one going didn't you?' And I said: 'Well by the look of it, it's you and me again', and it was just like having Max."

Buttel was thrilled with the news, saying that it was hard to find her two brothers as their names had been changed after they were adopted.

"He just rang and he was there. I wasn't expecting anything. We couldn't believe it was really happening," she said.

"It's been a beautiful, magical thing. It's like a fairy tale."

"All my life I've been waiting for this. All my life I've been trying but nothing's come of it," she said.

Buttel said she was sad she never got to meet Max, but was thrilled that Lawrence was alive.

"Now I'm saying to my brothers upstairs: 'You leave me alone. You're not having me because I haven't finished here yet, so don't get any ideas'," she said.

"I say to my mother at night: 'Well mum, I've found the boys for you. I've finally found them, so you can rest in peace' and so can I, eventually.

"I hope it helps a lot of people. Keep searching. Don't give up."