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They will join other parents to remember
their loved ones as they describe the
tenth year as "incredibly tough" |
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Kate and Gerry McCann
(Photo: Getty) |
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Kate McCann will remember daughter
Madeleine at a carol service tomorrow as
they join other families facing
Christmas without their loved ones.
This season will mark 10 Christmases
since Maddie went missing in Praia de
Luz, Portugal, on a family holiday.
The parents will attend the service for
family of missing people at Saint
Martins-in-the-Fields in London’s
Trafalgar Square where another father
whose 14-year-old son is missing will
give a speech.
Kevin Gosden, whose son Andrew vanished
after playing truant from school,
described “the very emotional service”
as “one of few opportunities to meet and
share memories of our missing loved ones
and to pray again for them and for our
families.” |
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Kate McCann and her husband
Gerry McCann (Photo: AFP) |
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Former GP Kate and heart doctor husband
Gerry told in a rare public message last
year how they bitterly miss sharing
their daughter's excitement in the run
up to Christmas.
A close pal of the couple, both 48, from
Rothley, Leics, said: “This year is
particularly tough because Madeleine
would now be a teenager and it is the
family’s tenth festive season without
her.”
Scotland Yard are chasing up a final
“last throw of the dice” lead that
three-year-old Maddie was snatched by
child traffickers during a bungled
burglary at a holiday apartment in
Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May 2007. |
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Madeleine McCann went
missing in May 2007 (Photo:
Find Madeleine Campaign/PA) |
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Her parents, who have 11-year-old twins
Sean and Amelie, have never given up
hope that she could still be alive. She
would now be aged 13.
Teen Andrew disappeared from Doncaster,
South Yorks, just four months after
Maddie in September 2007.
Like the McCanns and hundreds of other
families, his dad, mum Glenys and sister
Charlotte pray they will one day be
reunited with him.
Kevin, 51, will tell gatherers at the
special Missing People service at Saint
Martins-in-the-Fields in London’s
Trafalgar Square: “The music is both
moving and inspiring which we always
find uplifting. It is something which
stays with us too.” |
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She was taken from the
holiday apartment in
Portugal |
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The flagship event will be hosted by the
charity’s patron Sir Trevor McDonald and
feature their own choir performing “I
Hope."
Maddie’s mum, an ambassador for Missing
People, is not due to speak.
But she will listen, ever hopeful, as
Pauline Green tells how she was reunited
with her son Matthew, 32, in May after
he went missing in Spain for six years.
The thrilled mum, 63, and husband Jim
from Sittingbourne, Kent, will tell how
her lost son’s return is like “all of
our Christmases come at once”. |
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Front of block 6 at the
Praia Da Luz Ocean Club
Resort where Madeleine
McCann went missing from
flat 5a in block 5 of the
resort in Portugal (Photo:
Philip Coburn / Daily
Mirror) |
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Her parents will attend a
service with the families of
other missing persons
(Photo: PA) |
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She will tell the packed congregation:
“I am hoping we can be seen as some form
of inspiration and comfort during such
unimaginable circumstances.
“I am one of the lucky ones. I’d like to
encourage you to stay positive, strong
and united in your journey to find your
loved one, and never ever give up. It
will come right in the end.”
The charity’s Chief executive Jo Youle
said: “Across the UK, someone goes
missing every two minutes. For their
families, the thought of an empty chair
at the Christmas dinner table is truly
heart-breaking."
Tickets for the service, which will
include readings by TV’s New Tricks star
Amanda Redman, Being Human actor Jason
Watkins and comic actress Rebecca Front,
are still available here . |
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