05/12/2008
The parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann said they would be spending her fifth birthday "privately and quietly" at home. "It will be one of the hardest days of the last 375", Kate and Gerry McCann said on their website.
Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal on May 3 last year, shortly before her fourth birthday. Her parents were eating at a nearby bistro when she disappeared from their apartment. Despite a massive publicity appeal and police search, nothing has been found to indicate her whereabouts. She has since had two birthdays, turning five on Monday.
The McCanns will mark the day with Madeleine's brother and sister, Sean and Amelie, at their Leicestershire home. "We will be marking it privately and quietly", her parents said. We will do everything to try and ensure Madeleine does not spend another birthday separated from her family".
The couple said there had been a tremendous response to their latest appeal for information. "Hundreds of calls and e-mails have been received and each and every bit of information will be assessed and followed up", they wrote. Their new campaign, launched ahead of the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, urged anyone who has spoken to the Portuguese or British authorities about her apparent abduction in Praia da Luz to now call them. "We would like to hear from everyone who was staying at the Ocean Club at the time of Madeleine's abduction or from anyone who may have experienced a similar incident in the Iberia peninsula", they added.
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