Madeleine McCann’s parents celebrate twins becoming teens with prayers for missing daughter ‘wherever she is’
THE parents of Madeleine McCann are today celebrating their twins becoming teenagers with prayers too for their missing daughter “wherever she is”.
Kate and Gerry cling onto a glimmer of hope their eldest child could still be alive and are remembering her during a joint 13th birthday party for her siblings.
As Maddie’s younger brother and sister blow out candles on their cake a family pal said: “Their only wish is for their big sister to come home.”
Sean and Amelie, who are both aspiring amateur athletes, are having a special milestone celebration with friends and family.
One guest said: “There will be prayers to remember Madeleine as well wherever she is. Kate and Gerry want to give the twins a memorable occasion, they’re teenagers now and that’s a big deal.
“But the party will be marred with a tinge of sadness because Madeleine is not here to join in the fun.”
Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a Portuguese holiday apartment nearly 11 years ago.
British police continue to search for her and have not ruled out the possibility of finding her alive despite failing to unearth any new clues. She would now be aged 14.
Her parents are bravely trying to mark the double birthdays in “as normal way as possible” for the sake of the twins.
Former GP Kate, now a medical worker, has previously told how the family often pray for Maddie’s safe return and always remember her on key occasions.
She said her twins have “grown up essentially without Madeleine but knowing their sister is missing and they want her back.”
The anguished mum, speaking in the past to promote her charity Missing People of which she is an ambassador, added: “They have their own friends and they keep busy and they’re really sporty but their only wish is for their big sister to come home. We miss our complete family of five.
“As a family 98 per cent of the time we’re busy. I don’t know if that’s a conscious thing but it helps. The urge to look for Madeleine absolutely hasn’t changed at all.”
Kate and renowned heart doctor Gerry, both 49, of Rothley, Leics, celebrate their own milestone 50th birthdays this spring.
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Scotland Yard detectives have two months left of guaranteed Home Office funding to continue their painstaking search for Maddie.
She disappeared, feared snatched by a child trafficker, sex predator or during a bungled burglary at her family’s holiday flat in the pretty Algarve resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007.
At the time she had been left sleeping alone with her toddler siblings while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant with pals.