Happy 14th Madeleine, we’re waiting for you
McCanns’ birthday message for their missing girl
MADELEINE McCann was sent a special birthday gift yesterday – a message of love from parents Kate and Gerry.
The youngster vanished from their holiday flat in Portugal’s Algarve 10 years ago, just days before she turned four.
Her parents, who have never wavered in their determination to find her, wrote on Facebook: “Happy 14th birthday, Madeleine! We love you and we’re waiting for you. We’re never going to give up.”
They also laid presents in her bedroom – as they have on every birthday since she went missing from the apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz.
But this year’s birthday had special poignancy because of the 10-year anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Glasgow-born Gerry, a heart surgeon, and his former GP wife were joined by their 12-year-old twins Sean and Amelie to mark the special day privately at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire. The twins, then only two, were also in the apartment on the night Madeleine vanished. Madeleine’s pink bedroom in the house has been kept unchanged in her memory. Kate told recently how she carefully chose gifts on every birthday to reflect her firstborn girl’s age – and hopes she will one day open them herself.
She said: “I think about what age she is and buy something that, whenever we find her, will still be appropriate. A lot of thought goes into it.”
Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance is continuing.
Kate said of the probe: “It might not be as quick as we want but there’s real progress being made.”