Sunday Mail (UK)

Acebook to spread word and track down lost families

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have more than 50 years and, in just a few hours through the power of Facebook, we have found her and put them in touch.

“In one case, we reunited two sisters who had not seen each other in decades as one had emigrated to Australia. Two days after we put out the post, they were back in contact and have since met up.

“I even found an old friend of mine who I had not seen for 38 years. We were born just a day apart and they called us the twins. We lost touch when our families moved but I found her through the page.”

Angie, who is mum to Ainslii, 27, Tonii, 22, and Katana, 17, said: “For the past four years, on any given day, our administra­tors have been working on two or three long-lost family and friend searches.

“We reckon in that time we have dealt with more than 4000 cases and, thanks to our reach and spread of members, about two out of three searches have been successful.

“That means we are looking at a ballpark figure of nearly 3000 people who have been reunited with loved ones through our page, which is pretty incredible.”

Angie, married to Sureign, 44, said the Missing People Scotland network’s success is down to the hard work of all the volunteers.

She said: “We are a fantastic team. The administra­tors all have different skills – some are experts in genealogy, others are good at IT.

“For most, the site raises issues close to their hearts and has helped them locate long-lost family or search for a vulnerable loved one who has gone missing.

“Everyone gives up their time for free and nothing is too much trouble. Many, like me, have full-time jobs and just do this in their spare time.”

Angie is keen to take the next step and turn the support network into a charity.

She added: “My dream is to get charity status for Missing People Scotland so we can achieve even more. “We get lots of people wanting to donate money to families in trouble but at the moment we have to tell

them they need to pass it on to them direct as we cannot handle money.

“Becoming a charity would allow us to fundraise and pay for more advanced searches and it would enable us to buy a headquarte­rs, where people could come to and talk to our volunteers.”vol

Angie is delightedd­e with herhe Great Scot nomination­nom and said:sai “All my life, I wantedwa to do somethings­om to help people.peo I just never knewkne what it was. I kept trying to do stuff and it just never worked out. This happened by accident. It has given me a purpose that I’ve been craving my whole life.

“From putting out posts to locate vulnerable people to reuniting long- lost families, the page has helped so many people.

“There isn’t always a happy outcome but knowing we are doing something to help means the world to us all. It’s a huge team effort and hopefully we will continue to grow.

“Being nominated for an award is the icing on the cake as, the more members we have, the more missing people we can help locate.”

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CASES Susan Marshall and Paige Doherty

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