Liverpool's solidarity gives me strength

Aug 16 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Liverpool-born mother of missing toddler Madeleine McCann last night said the “solidarity” she had received from the people of Liverpool was what was giving her the strength to keep going.

Speaking to the Daily Post at a Portuguese hotel close to the spot where her four-year-old daughter was taken, Kate McCann said it was messages of support from her home town that gave her the “strength of resolve to carry on.”

And there was fresh hope for the family last night, following reports that blood traces found in the bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping the night she was snatched were not hers.

A newspaper report says forensic results show the blood came from a man, bearing out police suspicions that the blood came from a guest who hurt himself while staying at the flat after Madeleine disappeared.

But, despite this fresh ray of hope,Kate McCann admitted for the first time that the family may, eventually, have to leave Portugal without Madeleine.

In an emotional interview, the 38-year-old who grew up in Anfield and Allerton said she and her parents, Brian and Susan Healy, had been overwhelmed by the solidarity shown by people in Liverpool last weekend to mark 100 days since Madeleine went missing.

She said it was the thousands of messages of support that continued to lift her and her husband and give them hope at a time when the Portuguese police revealed they believed Madeleine may be dead.

She said: “Last weekend was incredibly hard.

“To know that people are with us more than ever – what with the events of last week – has been so important for us.

“We were astounded by the show of solidarity in Liverpool.

“The people in the city have not lost sight of the fact that Madeleine, who is an innocent soul in all of this, is still missing.”

The GP said Madeleine had been especially fond of visiting Calderstones Park, close to her grandparents’ home in Mossley Hill.

She revealed that when the couple had the heart-wrenching task of choosing images to go with the official Madeleine Campaign song – Don’t You Forget About Me, by Simple Minds – they chose to include footage of her playing in Calderstones as this was often where she was at her happiest.

She added that, even at her tender age, Madeleine had followed in her mother’s and grandparents’ footsteps and become a “true blue Everton fan”.

The former Notre Dame pupil said that although she was now coming to terms with the fact she would at some point leave Portugal, she would never give up hope that Madeleine would be found and reunited with the family.

Until then, she wants her daughter, who went missing from their apartment in the popular Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz 105 days ago, to be seen as an icon for all missing children across the globe.

• * McCanns open their hearts to Merseyside over their loss of Madeleine