'I went missing 50 times as a child - now I need to help stop it happening to others'

Once a troubled teen, Jade Knight tells how the charity Missing People helped her turn her life around

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A young woman who went missing 50 times as a child after “feeling lost in the world” is now helping other vulnerable young people find their way home.

Jade Knight, 23, was 15 and finding it difficult to cope with her type 1 diabetes when she walked out of hospital and disappeared for the first time.

“I was really struggling with my chronic illness and feeling lost in the world,” she told The Independent. “I didn’t know what ‘missing’ was - I just walked out as an escape. I didn’t take a phone or anything with me. I just went because I needed somewhere to breathe. Originally, I had gone for a walk, and decided that I couldn’t go back, I couldn’t face what I needed to face in life.”

Her parents reported her missing to police, who quickly found her - but the pattern continued. Over the next few years, Jade would go missing dozens of times.

It was after one of those disappearances that she came into contact with the charity Missing People, which she says transformed her life.

“There were a lot of times when speaking to the Missing People charity actually helped me go back,” she said. “They made me feel safe enough and gave me the space to talk about what I needed to speak about.”