McCanns have ‘fresh hope’ Madeleine will be found alive

As Kate and Gerry McCann face into their ninth Christmas without their daughter Madeleine, the couple have revealed they have fresh hope she is still alive. No trace of the four-year-old, who vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia de Luz in Portugal's Algarve on May 3, 2007, has ever been found, despite ongoing investigations. She would now be 12-years-old. In a message posted on the Find Maddie website, the heartbroken parents wrote: “We have not lost hope that we may get to celebrate another Christmas with her. If anything can drive us on, that most definitely will.

"Whilst it is never as much or as speedy as we, or the police would like, we are moving in the right direction and that’s the positive. Patience and perseverance are virtues which we’ve acquired in abundance over recent years, “And so a new year approaches....new energy, new opportunities, new hope.”

Earlier this month, the couple, who are both 47, compiled a heartbreaking list of all the things they miss about their daughter. Among the many things Madeleine's disappearance has robbed them of, they cited their daughter's sense of humour, her voice and her eyes, her imitations of friends and family and her excitement in the run-up to Christmas. Kate and Gerry have kept Madeleine's bedroom exactly like it was when she vanished. The couple and their twins, Sean and Amelie, leave presents there every Christmas Day in the hope that one day she will come home and open them.