MCCANNS REFUSE TO GIVE UP I still buy birthday and Xmas presents for Maddie
KATE and Gerry McCann today vow to do “whatever it takes for as long as it takes” to find their daughter Madeleine.
And as the 10th anniversary of her disappearance approaches, they also told how they are determined to live normal lives for the sake of their 12-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.
In a deeply moving interview, Kate, 48, admitted she still bought birthday and Christmas gifts for Madeleine each year in the hope she will one day be able to give them to her.
She said: “I do all the present buying. I obviously have to think about what age she is and something that, whenever we find her, will still be appropriate so there’s a lot of thought goes into it.
“But I couldn’t not, you know, she’s still our daughter, she’ll always be our daughter.”
Kate and Gerry spoke to BBC TV presenter Fiona Bruce to mark 10 years since Madeleine, three, vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Asked how the “family unit” had managed to stay strong since the shocking events of May 3, 2007, Kate admitted: “People say you don’t realise how strong you are until you have no option and I think that’s very true.
“Some of that is subconscious, I think – your mind and body just take over to a certain extent. But if you can’t change something immediately, you have to go with it and do the best that you can.”
Gerry said: “I think before Madeleine was taken, we felt we had managed to achieve our little perfect nuclear family of five. We had that for a short period and I suppose, almost the same way as if your child becomes ill or seriously ill, or has died, like many other families have suffered... then your vision is altered and you have to adapt. You adapt and you have a new normality.
“Unfortunately for us a new normality is a family of four, but we have adapted and that’s important.”
Kate, 48, admitted she tried not to allow herself to picture the actual moment she will be reunited with Madeleine.
She said: “I try not to go there too often to be honest it’s one of those real bittersweet kind of thoughts, yeah, I mean, I can’t imagine, 10 years is a long time.”
Emotion
them about online trolls who post vile slurs about the case. He said: “I’m sure it is a very small minority of people who spend their time doing it, but it has totally inhibited what we do. Personally, we don’t use social media, although we have used it in Madeleine’s campaign.
“But for our twins growing up in an era where mobile technology is used all the time, we don’t want them not to be able to use it in the same way their peers do.”
He added: “I don’t want to dwell on the negative aspects too long, but I think people just need to think twice before what they write and the effect it has.
“I think we’ve seen the worst and the best of human nature and our personal experience, rather than on the internet, has been overwhelmingly seeing the better