Who are Madeleine McCann’s parents Kate and Gerry, and who are her brothers and sisters?
MADELEINE McCann disappeared from her holiday apartment bed over a decade ago in Portugal when she was just three years old.
Kate and Gerry McCann, her parents, and their wider family have incredibly stuck together as they have desperately searched for answers since 2007.
Who are Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry?
Kate and Gerry, were both born in 1968 and live in Rothley, Leicestershire. They are Roman Catholics. Kate Healy is from Huyton, near Liverpool and graduated in 1992 with a degree in medicine from the University of Dundee.
Gerald Patrick McCann was born in Glasgow and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in physiology/sports science in 1989. In 1992 he qualified in medicine and in 2002 obtained his MD.
Since 2005 he has been a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester.
The McCanns met in 1993 in Glasgow and were married five years later.
How many other children do Kate and Gerry have?
The McCanns also have twins, a boy and girl called Amelie and Sean, who were born in February 2005 and are now 13.
Kate told The Sun Maddie's siblings are told everything about the case and any developments in the search.
She said: "The twins are doing really well.
"They’ve grown up essentially without Madeleine, knowing their sister is missing and they want her back.
"They are up to date, they know everything, they know if we are meeting police.
"There is nothing kept from them."
Are Kate and Gerry both still doctors?
After graduation Kate moved briefly into obstetrics and gynaecology, then anaesthesiology, and finally general practice.
She quit her job as a GP to devote her life to working for children's charities.
Kate never returned to her part-time job as a locum after daughter Madeleine's disappearance and handed in her notice in 2008.
Maddie’s dad is a renowned consultant cardiologist and a professor of cardiac imagery.
Professor McCann, as he is now titled, prides himself on having “established a national and growing international reputation as an expert in Cardiac MRI (magnetic reasoning imaging)” – or scanning.
When did Madeleine McCann disappear?
Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007, when her family, from Leicestershire, were holidaying in the Algarve, Portugal.
Parents Gerry and Kate left their three children – including toddler twins Sean and Amelie – sleeping in their apartment while they dined at a nearby tapas bar.
When Kate returned to check on the kids at around 10pm that evening, she discovered that Maddie was not in her bed and was missing.
In September of that year, Gerry and Kate, who are both doctors, were sensationally named as ‘arguidos’ by Portuguese police.
While arguido is often translated as ‘suspect’, it actually means a person being questioned under caution.
The following summer the McCanns were cleared by investigators in Portugal who declared they had exhausted all avenues in the case.
In 2010, Maddie’s distraught parents met with then-home secretary Theresa May to talk about the hunt for their daughter.
The following year, Scotland Yard launched its own review, named Operation Grange, into the case at the behest of the future PM.
Two years later Scotland Yard said it had uncovered new leads while Portuguese police reopened their case.
In October 2015, Operation Grange was scaled down from 29 detectives to just four.
The Tory Government then injected extra funding into the operation as cops investigated a new theory that Maddie was snatched by a human trafficking ring.
Meanwhile, cops are now hunting a "person of significance" in a shock new development.
A source close to Scotland Yard's search Operation Grange said the person is now a "critical line of inquiry" in the £12million investigation, according to The Times.
And a former Met police chief has called for fresh interview of Maddie's parents and the Tapas Seven - who have never been quizzed by British cops.
latest on madeleine mccann
How old would Madeleine McCann be now?
Madeleine would have turned 14 on May 12 in 2018.
In April 2012, UK cops released a computer generated image of Maddie showing how she might look aged nine.
A number of potential leads have emerged since the little girl vanished, but none amounted to anything and no arrests have ever been made.
In January 2019, Maddie's parents were boosted by the news that 13-year-old American schoolgirl Jayme Closs had been found three months after her kidnap.
Is the investigation into her disappearance still open?
Detectives working on the case were still pursuing "critical" leads at the time of the 10th anniversary of her disappearance, a Scotland Yard chief has said.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said there are "significant investigative avenues" that are of "great interest" to both the UK and Portuguese teams investigating.
Met cops believe she was stolen by child traffickers or sex fiends, or during a burglary gone wrong.
Kate said of the probe: “It might not be as quick as we want but there’s real progress being made and I think we need to take heart from that.”
On September 28, 2017, it was confirmed investigators have received £154,000 to keep the probe alive.
Without fresh funding Operation Grange could have shut down in as little as three weeks time.
The extra cash is set to fund the search until end of March 2019.
Kate and and Gerry are “extremely thankful to both the Home Office and Scotland Yard for the continued funding,” their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.
The Home Office announced it was ploughing more money into Operation Grange, the official investigation, at the latest request of Met Police.
In November 2017 it emerged that cops had travelled to Bulgaria to try and track down a paedophile's widow.
Reports came to light detectives were hunting down a woman dressed in purple, who had worked with her late husband as domestic helpers on the resort where Madeleine vanished.
In March 2018, Scotland Yard won Home Office funding to continue chasing a vital "final line of enquiry" for a further six months.
