We will never give up hope

BY the time you read this article, somebody's son or daughter will be reported missing in the UK.

- BY SIOBHAN MCNALLY

Thousands disappear every week and most go unnoticed.

But even when all others have given up hope of ever seeing them again, their mothers never do.

Four mums told us their moving stories as we launch our Mirror's Missed campaign on Mother's Day.

It is yet another year that Julie Davis, Christine Durand, Nerissa Tivy and Sharon Lee are not opening cards or receiving flowers and chocolates from one of their children.

They spoke to us in the hope our campaign might help find them after years of looking.

Meeting for the first time, they brought treasured baby pictures and keepsakes and spoke about their dashed hopes and dreams.

The Sunday Mirror is calling for better support and care for missing people and their families.

FAIRYTALE

Around 170,000 people - including 75,000 children are reported missing to police every year in this country.

It is roughly one every three minutes and the unofficial number is thought to be far higher.

But mothers never lose heart and one who is living proof is 72-year-old Sharon Lee.

Her daughter Katrice went missing on her second birthday from a British Army base NAAFI shop in Paderborn, Germany, in November 1981.

She says: "I've not given up hope for 43 years. All the time you don't give up hope, your missing loved one will never be lost.

"I'm a member of a very select club - you don't ask to be in it, but it can happen to anyone."

Sharon now lives in Gosport, Hampshire, not far from her other daughter Natasha, who was seven when her sister disappeared.