On the third anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance Kate McCann talks about her renewed strength, 04 May 2010

On the third anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance Kate McCann talks about her renewed strength HELLO! magazine (appears in paper edition)

Report: TRACEY KANDOHLA
No. 1122, 10 May 2010 (published: 04 May 2010)

As the third anniversary of the disappearance of her daughter Madeleine comes around, Kate McCann has revealed how she has finally found new strength.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2, Kate said that the anger - "a horrible negative emotion" - which nearly destroyed her in the months after Madeleine's disappearance has now subsided.

"The wounds are less raw, but the pain doesn't go away and the anxiety is always there," she admitted. "But I am definitely a lot stronger than I was a year ago."

Kate confessed that her five-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, and her husband Gerry, 41, have been a constant source of comfort to her, even during her darkest days. "They keep me going," the 42-year-old said, "and we've had amazing support from family and the public."

While the heart-wrenching milestone gives Kate a chance to reflect, she also believes it is a time to move forward, and she and Gerry are "thrilled to bits" that a campaign to help missing children - backed by HELLO! magazine - will be up and running in three weeks' time.

Thanks to the couple's push for a public emergency system, from 25 May - International Missing Children's Day - the whole of Britain will be put on alert if a youngster is abducted.

"We are delighted by the imminent introduction of a child-alert system within Europe and the UK and are very grateful to all the European politicians, police forces and other agencies who will now be working together to ensure this system works," Kate and Gerry tell HELLO!. "If it stops just one other child from going missing, then all our hard work will not have been in vain."

The couple are also appealing to HELLO! readers to continue helping them find their missing daughter.

"We are urging all HELLO! readers - particularly those in Spain and Portugal - to maintain awareness of Madeleine and keep searching for her and help us find her."

Kate and Gerry have been slowly rebuilding their lives ever since their eldest child vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, just nine days before her fourth birthday.

Choking back tears during the recent moving interview on Radio 2, Kate described her loss as like "experiencing hell on earth" and told of how she often imagines Maddie back "in the warmth and love of our family" and playing with the twins.

"They talk about Madeleine every day and they are very positive," she said. "Her relationship with Sean and Amelie, it's incredible really and that's something which still gets to me at times. Sean was digging in a sandpit, and I said, 'What are you doing?' and he said, 'I'm digging up buried treasure, Mummy, and I'm going to give it to Madeleine.' You think what it would be like if the three of them were together."

Kate has given up her part-time job as a GP to spearhead the global hunt for her daughter and work on lobbying the European Parliament in Brussels on her missing child's initiative.

The heartbroken mum - who is still painfully thin - confessed that at times she feels guilty about being able to cope. "Sometimes you beat yourself up," she admitted, "because I think, 'How come I am doing okay?'"

The devout Catholic revealed that she prays for her daughter every week at the local church - "I get comfort in that wherever she is, whoever she's with, God is protecting her" - and that she will try and find it in her heart to forgive her daughter's kidnappers. "I would like to hope I could forgive," she told radio listeners.

Last week, Kate and Gerry had a meeting with their lawyers in Lisbon. The trip followed a TV interview with GMTV's Lorraine Kelly in which the couple accused the British authorities of "essentially giving up" on their daughter. They are now urging the government to carry out "a comprehensive review" of the case.

As the family prepared for a low-key celebration to mark Madeleine's seventh birthday on 12 May, Kate insisted: "We've got a lot of hope that Madeleine is still alive.

"The difficult task is trying to find her, but we will certainly never give up."

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These articles all have the same phrases and sentences, just tweaked a bit here and there.

[quote] : " The heartbroken mum - who is still painfully thin"

The journalists all seem to love the above quote. Now all the photos I have seen of KM show her looking the same, even the photos taken before Madeleine disappeared. The one in the interview the day after the 3rd May 2007, shows Kate looking "painfully thin" then. She didn't lose weight overnight, she has always been a thin person.

Still no mention of how she has had to deal with two of her doctor friends making those somewhat gross allegations about her husband and Payne yet.

How has she managed to come to terms with any of this? Has her faith in God helped her to forgive them?

Are the Gaspars being quietly sued in the background? What kind of friends were they to have colluded and made such terrible statements to the police?

Madeleine had been missing for only one week when the Gaspars deliberately and cruelly told their stories. Did they not stop to think that the McCanns must have been suffering enough without their tuppenceworth. Who could blame the McCanns if they were to sue the Gaspars?

Because references have been made to these allegations, Team McCann have used libel threats to stop the writers of books, pamphlets and leaflets, but have they ever got to the heart of the matter and dealt with why the Gaspars ever stated what they did?

candyfloss wrote: : " The heartbroken mum - who is still painfully thin"

The journalists all seem to love the above quote. Now all the photos I have seen of KM show her looking the same, even the photos taken before Madeleine disappeared. The one in the interview the day after the 3rd May 2007, shows Kate looking "painfully thin" then. She didn't lose weight overnight, she has always been a thin person.

If she was an actress they'd be examining her through the Hubble space telescope and pointing out the evils of her cellulite, even if she was half the size she is. Mithering about weight just helps them fill the column inches.

I agree vaguely1. Of course, if they did not mention how painfully thin and haggard she was, there would be very little else they could use to arouse sympathy and tug on the heart-strings of women who cannot bear to think about leaving their children for a moment.

One wonders whether Mitchell sends a standard template to all media organisations with a list of stiff parameters for those who may try to deviate from it.