Madeleine McCann disappeared at the age of three in 2007, when she was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry, and siblings Sean and Amelie, in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The disappearance

is still unsolved 12 years later but Kate and Gerry continue to campaign for awareness of their daughter’s plight in the hope of her safe return. On the seventh anniversary of Madeleine’s

disappearance in 2014, Gerry McCann spoke about his hopes for the “best scenario” for his missing daughter.

He said: “Very early on we got advice from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), saying that there a whole lot of reasons children get taken, that's the first

“I suppose the scenario, and it's not been ruled out, Madeleine was taken by someone who wanted a child and she’s being loved and cared for, that’s the best scenario, but of course there are

many others.”

In the BBC interview, Fiona Bruce asked the couple: “You’ve talked about the young women that have been found, that went missing as girls and were found many years later.

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You

can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy

“Sometimes they did have access to television, they did have access to newspapers and the internet but they couldn’t escape.

“It’s a long shot, but if Madeleine is alive, if she could hear you, what would you say to her?"

Kate replied: “We love you Madeleine, we miss you every day as we did that very first day.

Kate wrote her own book in 2011, titled “Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her”, and spoke about cases of missing children who were later reunited with

their families that give her hope that Madeleine will be safely returned home, too.

She wrote: “There are many examples of abducted children being recovered years later.”

Kate spoke of Carlina White, who had been lovingly brought up by her abductor, who stole her as a baby in 1987 from a hospital in New York.

Carlina was reunited with her family 23 years later in 2011 after she turned to the NCMEC for help.

Kate concluded: “How many more children are out there waiting to be found?”

The McCanns, in addition to campaigning for awareness of their daughter’s case, have also taken petitions to Brussels to help in establishing a Europe-wide missing child alert system.

Modelled on the US AMBER alert system, the AMBER Alert Europe scheme was introduced in 2013 and operates across 20 European countries including the UK.

Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section.

See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive.