McCanns open their hearts to Merseyside over their loss of Madeleine

Aug 16 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

Kate McCann speaks exclusively to Caroline Innes about how Liverpool is keeping her going in the long search for missing daughter Madeleine

KATE McCANN has not had a dream since her daughter went missing. While her days are filled with hope that Madeleine will be found and returned to her family, she said her nights have become empty.

When the Liverpool-born GP wakes, every morning is just another reminder that Madeleine is not there.

While Kate and husband Gerry tell themselves every day “today is the day” that Madeleine will be found, their strength and resolve to keep searching is constantly tested by vicious speculation about their private lives and what has really happened to their first born.

Clutching her daughter’s treasured “Cuddle-Cat” for comfort, Mrs McCann, who by her own admission “is all interviewed-out” agreed to speak to her local paper the Daily Post at a secret location in Praia da Luz.

Already the mother-of-three, who is striving to keep life as normal as possible for two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, has been photographed as she left Mass and as she and her family tried to eat a private lunch.

As she arrives in a hire car driven by husband Gerry, the 38-year-old puts Madeleine’s favour-ite toy to her face and adjusts the yellow Find Madeleine campaign wristbands she is never without.

Back at the “modest villa” the couple are renting, friends and family including Mark and Linda McQueen from Formby, take care of the twins so they can continue to face the world’s media – in the hope that the publicity will help find their daughter.

The former All Saints Catholic Primary pupil said until their world was rocked by Madeleine’s disappearance, her family had otherwise lived a “normal, but happy” life, that some might even describe as being “boring”.

She said: “We were a complete-ly ordinary family before this from very ordinary backgrounds.

“I grew up in Anfield as part of a working-class family and simply chose the profession of becoming a doctor.

“We still can’t believe what has happened to us. We can’t imagine how we came out to Portugal as a family of five and may be going back as a four.

“One day we will go back to our lives in the UK. One day we will wake up and it will be right to go. We never thought that we would go before Madeleine came back to us but now we just don’t know.”

Mr McCann said: “Anybody who is a parent, or has a younger brother or sister, knows that feeling in a department store or in the park – even if it is just for a split second – where you have lost sight of your child.

“For us, that feeling is a thousand times worse. It is the hardest thing in the entire world.”

Kate, who was taken by her father Brian Healy to watch Everton play at the age of five, said he had already recruited Madeleine as a next-generation Everton fan.

She said: “I am an only child so Madeleine was their first grandchild.

“My mum and dad doted on her – particularly dad – who once said to me ‘I never thought it was possible but I actually think I love Madeleine more than I love you’.

‘HE HAD started getting her into football and all three children had Everton tops that he had bought for them.

“There is a great picture of all three of them in their tops together.

“One day she was with her grandad writing something. It read: ‘Madeleine signs up for the Blues’.”

Mr McCann said: “Whenever we used to visit them we used to all go to Calderstones Park.

“She loved it there going on the swings and the slides.

“It was one of her favourite places. We chose one of the photos of her at Calderstones Park to feature on the Don’t You Forget About Me video as she really loves the time she spends there.”

Kate added: “She was a typical girl and always wanted to wear long flowing skirts and shoes when she was going to the park.