‘Reaching £100,000 isn’t just a fantastic milestone – it’s a life-changing moment’

The Independent’s SafeCall campaign has surged past £100,000 in donations, marking a major step towards creating a new national lifeline for missing young people.

- TARA COBHAM

It follows an extraordinary outpouring of public support, with readers giving at remarkable speed to help launch a service designed to reach the children most at risk.

Jo Youle, chief executive of Missing People, said: “We are absolutely over the moon that The Independent has reached an incredible milestone - £100,000! To every reader, and to everyone who has recognised, supported, and championed the work Missing People is doing - thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

“Reaching £100,000 isn’t just a milestone - it’s a life-changing moment. We are one step closer to building and launching a new service that will help so many children and young people, giving them the hope, safety and opportunities they deserve.

“But we’re not there yet. We still have a way to go to raise the funds to build and launch SafeCall - a service that so many young people urgently need. We need your support to make this a reality. Together, we can change young people’s lives.”

This publication was moved to act by the sheer scale of the crisis: more than 72,000 children go missing in the UK every year, a number so vast that a child is reported missing roughly every two and a half minutes.

The total is enough to fill the London Stadium, home of the 2012 Olympics, and nearly enough to fill the O2 Arena four times over.

By the time you have finished reading this article, another child will have been reported missing somewhere in Britain. Over half of missing children have experienced conflict, abuse or neglect at home, with a fifth feeling forced to leave.

Seven in 10 young people who have been sexually exploited have also been reported missing. Of the children interviewed by Missing People upon returning home, one in seven had been sexually exploited, while nearly one in 10 had been a victim of criminal exploitation.