In lowland search we only deal with a tiny fraction of all missing persons cases. It is sometimes easy to forget about all the other 200,000 thousand people who go missing every year whilst we concentrate on trying to save the lives of the hundred or so we deal with a year.

The charity Missing People, picks up where we leave off – if we don’t find a missing person Missing People, will take it on from there. They will offer support to the family, support the police in their further investigations and much, much more. I have always said that ALSAR Units should work more closely with this charity – carrying out search exercises in areas where potential long-term high-risk missing persons could be and so on.

However, we should also support the work that they do with the family. I once read a wonderful study on the effects of having a relative missing; it explained how as time passes, and special events happen – Christmas, Birthdays and so on, the family will struggle to mark and celebrate these events. How do you celebrate Christmas, do you buy the missing person a present? and so on. It is easy to forget about these things as we do what we do.

So support Missing People, any way you can – at the least a website link, but a small donation occassionally wouldn’t go amiss!