Inside Missing People - the charity finding lost loved one for distraught families

Inside Missing People - the charity finding lost loved ones for distraught families




John Alevroyiannis / Sunday People [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Hotline helper Marika Shaw

For the valiant members of one heroic UK charity, the work they do is so harrowing that every fortnight they themselves have to see a counsellor.
Down the corridor from their office is a special “calm room” where they can also go if they become too distressed by the phone calls that come in around the clock.
The dedicated band of helpers are regarded as the last resort by thousands of desperate Brit­ons – yet many are not paid a penny for their time.
They operate the Missing People hotline – open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
When police have exhausted all their leads and money for private investigations has run out, it is the first port of call and often the final hope for families whose loved ones have disappeared.

John Alevroyiannis / Sunday People [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Missing People headquarters


Read More

• [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
  

About 250,000 people vanish in the UK every year – 140,000 of them children, including high-profile cases such as Madeleine McCann, who went missing on holiday in Portugal, aged three, in 2007.
Her mother Kate has received such support from the charity that she views its staff and volunteers – plus other families it helps – as her friends.
“Having a missing child is like belonging to a club no one wants to be a part of – but Missing People really are a lifeline,” said Kate, 48.
Other cases – such as Ben Needham, who was 21 months old when he vanished on the Greek island of Kos in 1991 – have made national head­lines, while the names of many who have dis­appeared are virtually unknown.

Missing People [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yet in each instance the charity’s members not only record vital information about sightings but also counsel shocked family members.
Sometimes they even take calls from missing people themselves, some of whom are too scared to return home but do not know where to turn.
Hotline helper Marika Shaw, 27, said: “At first, it all used to get a bit much. I’d go home and cry in the shower. But I’ve got better at dealing with it.”
Viv Fowler, 68, who has manned the helpline for more than two decades, said: “The other day, I spoke to a teenager who had been thrown out by her mum. It was the middle of the night and she was distraught.
“That stayed with me for the rest of my shift. But when I got home I tried to leave it at the door. It’s all you can do or you’d go mad.”
One of the charity’s most heart-rending cases involved murdered teenager Alice Gross, 14.
The schoolgirl’s mother Ros Hodgkiss told how she turned to the hotline in her darkest hours before her daughter’s body was found.
Alice vanished in August 2014 and her body was found in a river near her West London home the following month.
Prime suspect Arnis Zalkalns, 41, who had earlier murdered his wife in his native Latvia, hanged himself before police could arrest him.
Ros [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : “My life is completely dominated by losing Alice and I don’t think I’ll ever get closure. Things have changed fundamentally.
You wake up every day and think of curling up into a duvet yet you have to go on as much as you can.
“But Missing People were amazing when Alice was missing. They really helped us.
“In the middle of the night when we woke up, or when we were not able to get to sleep, we all used the phone line to talk to somebody who understood something of what we were going through.”

PA [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Madeleine McCann
Every day Kate McCann, like all the other parents in her position, hopes that someone will call the London-based hotline with vital information.


Read More

• [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
  

“At the start I didn’t want to meet any families of other missing children,” she said.
“I wasn’t ready. You don’t want to think you’ll be without your child in a month, or a year, or ten years.
“But as the years go by and you’re still in that category, it becomes a comfort.
“Hope keeps us motivated. No one has the right to take away that hope. There are many examples of cases where children have been found after decades.
“You don’t want to be living with false hope but what is false hope? The hope that one day you will be united is what keeps you going.”

PA [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Ben Needham
An offshoot of the hotline is the child rescue alert, now issued in cases such as those of Alice and Madeleine via the charity at the request of the police.
Members of the public can sign up to receive information on missing children in the immediate aftermath of their disappearance, when officers feel timing is critical to finding the child safe and well.
Heightened awareness increases the likelihood of police receiving vital intelligence which could help locate them.

PA [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Alice Gross
Kate said: “The first three hours are very important. You may have seen some­thing innocuous but if you’ve had an alert things could fall into place. It could make the difference in finding a child.
“In conversation I do suggest people sign up to the child rescue alert, as you could have that piece of the jigsaw the police need. Little bits of information may direct them to where they need to be.”

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I find the alleged quote of Kate McCann's about the first three hours as rather puzzling as I seem to remember her  saying she was really busy and didn't physically search for Madeleine?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

worriedmum wrote:I find the alleged quote of Kate McCann's about the first three hours as rather puzzling as I seem to remember her  saying she was really busy and didn't physically search for Madeleine?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

... And the "little bits of information" may direct them where they need to be, 48 questions remember ?? 

This article is all about Kate the mother!

Where are the other parents "quotes"?
Where are the success stories?