People ask me if we think Andrew is alive or dead – it depends which day you ask

Kevin Gosden talks about the disappearance of his teenage son as he backs The Independent's SafeCall campaign

- TARA COBHAM

Kevin Gosden remembers his son saying, “See you later, Dad,” when he set off for school 18 years ago as if it were this morning.

Those ended up being the last words he ever heard from 14-year-old Andrew, as what began like any ordinary day became a nightmare from which the family has never woken.

Andrew waved goodbye as he left their Doncaster home on 14 September 2007 - but the family later pieced together that he never arrived at school.

Instead, it emerged that the teenager withdrew £200 from a cashpoint before returning home, once the rest of the family had left, to change into jeans, a T-shirt and his favourite bag. He then walked to the station and caught a train to King's Cross. After that, he vanished.

The family did not realise Andrew was missing until early that evening. Alarm bells rang when he didn't come downstairs for dinner; panic set in only after a friend at the school confirmed Andrew had not attended at all - something entirely out of character.

"There was nothing about his behaviour that was out of the ordinary at all the evening before, or at any time before he vanished," Mr Gosden told The Independent. "We thought, 'Something is deeply wrong here, we just don't know what yet."

That day has haunted him ever since. “I still live in it,” he said. “That panic-stricken sensation, that just doesn’t stop - it’s never stopped. It’s why I’m propelled through life by anxiety. It’s just awful. It’s absolutely paralysing...