'My child's missing and no one's telling me anything'

Seventeen years after 16-year-old Alexander Sloley vanished in north London, his mother is still fighting for answers

- HARRIETTE BOUCHER

When Nerissa Tivy sees other people’s sons graduate or welcome a new baby, she smiles for them. “But there’s a part of me that just sits there and thinks, oh my God, I’ll never see that with Alex now, never,” she says.

Tivy is one of more than 430,000 people affected each year by the disappearance of a child. Her son, Alexander Sloley, went missing in August 2008 when he was 16. He vanished from a friend's house in Islington, north London, with no wallet, no spare clothes and very little money.

Alex's story comes as The Independent and the charity Missing People launch the SafeCall appeal, aiming to raise £165,000 to fund a new free service offering support and safety to the 70,000 children reported missing each year.

Alex, who would now be 34, was an Arsenal fan and a maths enthusiast – a gentle, protective teenager devoted to his mother and three sisters. One of them was only five when he vanished, but still remembers him taking her to nursery on his bike.

“He didn't like trouble or confrontation,” Tivy says. “He just wanted everyone to be happy.”