Kate and Gerry McCann prepare for 10th Christmas without Maddie as they attend missing persons’ carol service
Madeleine's parents have never given up hope of finding the youngster, who vanished in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May 2007
KATE McCann will remember daughter Madeleine at a poignant carol service as she joins other families facing a bleak Christmas after the disappearance of a loved one.
As Kate prepares for her milestone 10th Christmas without Maddie a dad whose son has also been missing for nearly a decade will address the crowd.
Kevin Gosden, whose 14-year-old son Andrew vanished after playing truant from school, will describe “the very emotional service” as “one of few opportunities to meet and share memories of our missing loved ones and to pray again for them and for our families.”
Former GP Kate and heart doctor husband Gerry told in a heart rending rare public message last year how they bitterly miss sharing their daughter's excitement in the run up to Christmas.
A close pal of the couple, both 48, from Rothley, Leics, said: “This year is particularly tough because Madeleine would now be a teenager and it is the family’s tenth festive season without her.”
The Sun on Sunday told last week how Scotland Yard are chasing up a final “last throw of the dice” lead that three-year-old Maddie was snatched by child traffickers during a bungled burglary at a holiday apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May 2007.
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Her parents, who have 11-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, have never given up hope that she could still be alive. She would now be aged 13.
Teen Andrew disappeared from Doncaster, South Yorks, just four months after Maddie in September 2007. Like the McCanns and hundreds of other families, his dad, mum Glenys and sister Charlotte pray they will one day be reunited with him.
Kevin, 51, will tell gatherers at the special Missing People service at Saint Martins-in-the-Fields in London’s Trafalgar Square: “The music is both moving and inspiring which we always find uplifting. It is something which stays with us too.”
The flagship event will be hosted by the charity’s patron Sir Trevor McDonald and feature their own choir performing “I Hope."
Maddie’s mum, an ambassador for Missing People, is not due to speak.
But she will listen, ever hopeful, as Pauline Green tells how she was reunited with her son Matthew, 32, in May after he went missing in Spain for six years.
The thrilled mum, 63, and husband Jim from Sittingbourne, Kent, will tell how her lost son’s return is like “all of our Christmases come at once”. She will tell the packed congregation: “I am hoping we can be seen as some form of inspiration and comfort during such unimaginable circumstances.
“I am one of the lucky ones. I’d like to encourage you to stay positive, strong and united in your journey to find your loved one, and never ever give up. It will come right in the end.”
The charity’s Chief executive Jo Youle said: “Across the UK, someone goes missing every two minutes. For their families, the thought of an empty chair at the Christmas dinner table is truly heart-breaking."
Tickets for the service, which will include readings by TV’s New Tricks star Amanda Redman, Being Human actor Jason Watkins and comic actress Rebecca Front, are still available and can be found .