Kate McCann adds support for our SafeCall appeal

The helpline will offer 'hope, compassion, and the possibility of a different ending' for young people in danger, writes the mother of Madeleine McCann, who went missing in 2007

- JANE DALTON

Kate McCann has written a rare and deeply personal column backing The Independent’s SafeCall campaign, reflecting on the moment her daughter Madeleine went missing and thanking readers for helping fund a new national lifeline for vulnerable young people.

The lives of Kate and Gerry McCann were forever changed when their three-year-old daughter Madeleine disappeared in the village of Praia da Luz on the southwestern tip of Portugal on 3 May 2007.

In an exceptional intervention, published as part of The Independent’s Christmas appeal with the charity Missing People, Ms McCann writes of how life is divided into a “before” and an “after” when a child disappears, and how the uncertainty that follows never fades.

“I don’t often speak about the details, but not because they fade; they continue to live quietly alongside you, every day. Some experiences never leave - you simply learn to carry them,” she writes.