Ten years of hope and heartbreak for the McCanns

Ten years of hope and heartbreak for the McCanns



To the unenlightened eye, the scene at the Luz Ocean Club in Portugal’s Algarve this week was nothing short of picture perfect.

Beneath the brilliant sunshine and under the watchful gaze of their parents, children frolicked in the turquoise waters of the hotel’s three swimming pools.

Families meandered through the sub-tropical gardens and along the tree-lined promenade to watch the white-tipped waves from the Atlantic rolling into the sandy bay.

Certainly there was nothing tangible to remind hotel guests of the terrible events that occurred here exactly ten years ago.



The disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann from her family’s rented two-bedroom holiday apartment at the Ocean Club sparked one of the most baffling mysteries of modern times.

Yesterday, detectives said a ‘significant line of inquiry’ is the final throw of the dice which could end a decade of heartbreak for her family, and have returned to the theory burglars are linked to her disappearance.

For her parents Kate and Gerry, this has become their new ‘normal’. Scraps of hope proffered and then snatched away over the past ten years.



Back in the McCanns’ home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, green and yellow ribbons, symbolising hope and solidarity, are permanently tied to the gates of the family house.

Inside, Madeleine’s untouched bedroom is piled high with a decade’s worth of unopened birthday and Christmas presents — a symbol of the couple’s unwavering conviction their eldest daughter could come home one day.

They have coped in different ways with the tragedy. Back then, they were professional doctors: he a consultant cardiologist, she a family GP. Today, Kate, 49, still hasn’t returned to her job, choosing instead to be a full-time mother to the couple’s now 12-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie. A fitness fanatic, she finds comfort in daily work-outs at the gym.

Gerry McCann, 48, is now a professor of cardiac imaging at Leicester University as well as an internationally renowned cardiologist at Glenfield General Hospital in Leicester.



He was recently praised for saving the life of former Leicester City footballer Alan Birchenall after he suffered a heart attack and ‘died’ for seven minutes.

The events of Thursday, May 3, 2007, have been subject to endless speculation in the decade that has passed since, but only one fact remains clear: that, two days before they were due to return to the UK, Madeleine disappeared from her bed while her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant.

She was reported missing at 10.14pm after her mother returned to the apartment to check on her and her two-year-old siblings.

Despite being the subject of one of the biggest missing person investigations of all time, no trace of the little girl, who was about to turn four, has ever been found.

While every possible theory has been investigated — that Madeleine was abducted by a paedophile or child traffickers, that she was killed during a bungled burglary or that she simply wandered out of the apartment and died in an accident — Kate and Gerry McCann have doggedly refused to give up the search for her.

A source close to the family, who still live in the same large detached house, told the Mail this week that the couple ‘have come a long way’ over the past decade.

‘The McCanns are incredibly strong as a family,’ said the source. ‘There was a time when Kate never left the house, but she has found some normality for herself.

‘She goes to the gym almost every day. She is extremely fit and attends spinning and pilates classes and a running club. Exercising clearly helps her. She looks really well, much better than she has for a long time. I am so pleased for her.’ The family, the source added, speak ‘openly and often’ of Maddie.

On May 3, the McCanns, who are devout Catholics, will also join supporters to pray for Madeleine’s safe return at an informal outdoor gathering in Rothley.

The prayers will be led by the local Anglican vicar, the Rev Rob Gladstone, in front of the village war memorial where a candle continues to burn around the clock in her memory.

The McCanns are also preparing for a one-off television interview at the end of this month to mark the anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance.



It is not known if they will be joined by the friends who were with them in Portugal at the time Madeleine disappeared, but the McCanns remain close to the so-called ‘Tapas Seven’ whose lives were also transformed by the tragedy.

Among the close-knit group of friends were Dr David Payne, now 51, and his wife, Dr Fiona Payne, now 44. The couple flew to Praia da Luz with the McCanns from East Midlands airport in April 2007, along with Fiona’s mother Dianne Webster, now 73, and their two daughters.