<p>This heart-warming footage shows the first embrace between a mum and her son after Covid travel restrictions kept them thousands of miles apart - for almost three years.</p><p>Emotional Fiona Murphy, 58, said she 'almost had a heart attack' when Australia-based Sam Wilkinson, 30, made the surprise trip back home on Tuesday (June 28).</p><p>She'd previously visited her son Down Under every six months, but due to the country's strict pandemic protocols she hasn't been able to see him in person since 2019.</p><p>And Sam - who kept in contact with his family via video calls - even told his mum just 48 hours earlier that he could only return to the UK in September.</p><p>But in reality, the sales professional had hatched a plan to fly back for a sneaky visit the next day – leaving his mum in “disbelief” when he walked through the door.</p><p>Fiona said: “I was working from home that day, and I nearly had a heart attack when he walked into the front room. I had no idea he was coming home.</p><p>“I was in a state of disbelief. I just could not believe what I was seeing in front of me. It was just bizarre. </p><p>“Having only spoken to him 48 hours before, I couldn’t get my head around the fact that he wasn’t in Australia any more – he was in the front room, at home. It was just crazy.”</p><p>Fiona, from Liverpool, said her son had gone out to Australia six years ago as a postgraduate student, and later settled in Sydney where he found a job.</p><p>But after spending two years and eight months away from the UK, he'd decided to spring the surprise trip home with the help of his stepdad and two siblings.</p><p>Fiona said: “My son’s been in Australia for the last six years, and we as a family have seen him every six months. </p><p>“Then obviously the pandemic hit, and we couldn’t, so I spoke to him regularly on Facetime. </p><p>“And when I spoke to him, he said: “Well, hopefully I’ll get home in September.</p><p>“But his stepdad and his brother and his sister had been scheming – and he was actually flying home the next day."</p><p>Fiona said Sam was due to fly back to Australia on July 11, and she had set aside plenty of "precious" family time with him before then.</p><p>She said: “He flies back to Australia on 11 July. It’s just a couple of weeks, so our time is dead precious, just because it’s so short.</p><p>“Nobody knew he was coming home except for my husband and two kids. </p><p>“So we’ve been seeing grandparents and just having some lovely family days out – and just having some quality time as a family.”</p><p>Australia re-opened its borders to fully-vaccinated travellers on February 21 this year, after implementing some of the most stringent Covid-19 restrictions in the world.</p><p>National requirements for travellers to take pre-departure PCR tests were also dropped on April 18 this year, but regional protocols still apply in some states and territories.</p>