Loving mum will never lose hope over missing son Ben Needham

Parents still convinced their son is alive.

Ben Needham should be with his family, celebrating his 25th birthday this week. But they haven’t seen him since he went missing on the Greek island of

Kos in 1991.

I spoke to his mum Kerry and sister Leighanna this week about their long struggle to find Ben and how they have coped without knowing what happened to him 23 years ago.

They are both convinced that he is alive and was probably abducted.

Every time I’ve spoken to Kerry over the past quarter of a century she has been unwavering in her belief that, one day, she will see her little boy again.

He is the first thing she thinks about when she wakes up and the last before she goes to bed at night.

Leighanna, 21, was born after her brother disappeared and she has grown up in his shadow.

She has witnessed her mum stricken with grief and at one time trying to drown her sorrows in alcohol. She has seen her hopes repeatedly raised and dashed.

Kerry has worn herself out campaigning for the case to be re-opened and for the Greek police to co-operate with authorities here at home.

She is one of the few people who really knows and understands the pain the parents of Madeleine McCann are going through, and although she sympathises with them, Kerry is frustrated that she didn’t receive anything like the publicity or funding their campaign has been given.

Kerry has often felt that she and her family are very much on their own and she wants the UK Government to reinvestigate the evidence surrounding Ben’s disappearance.

The initial investigation by the Greek police was extremely badly handled.

Very little was done to try to find Ben and, at first, Kerry and her family found themselves under suspicion of doing him harm.

Clearly this was ridiculous but it hindered the investigation and there wasn’t initially much help from authorities in the UK.

I have no idea where Kerry gets her strength.

She looks extremely fragile and you can see the pain etched on her face, but she has shown phenomenal courage and tenacity in her search for Ben.

A couple of years ago she went through the ordeal of waiting for expert diggers to excavate scrubland around the house in Kos where Ben disappeared.

Nothing was found, which means there is still hope, but the agony of waiting for news must have been unbearable.

Computer technology has meant she has photos of what Ben may possibly look like as he has grown up, and the family use social media to appeal for help.

Kerry hopes that, one day, Ben will see some of her messages on Facebook and Twitter and those of her friends and supporters, and get in touch.

One ray of sunshine in their lives comes in the shape of Leighanna’s daughter, little nine-month-old Hermione, who is the centre of their world.

Kerry loves being a grandmother, but has to stop herself from wrapping the little baby in cotton wool.

She had to do the same with her daughter and at times it was hard for Leighanna when she was growing up and wanting the freedom all teenagers need in order to spread their wings.

Kerry will never give up and I truly hope that she will eventually be reunited with her boy and he’ll get to know his mother’s incredible unwavering love.