MOREthan100,000"Find Maddie" wristbands are to be handedout,andairline passengers may be targeted worldwide, in the latest initiative to find missing Madeleine McCann, the Sunday Herald has learned.
The yellow and green bands, similar to those pioneered by the legendary cyclistLanceArmstrongtoraise awareness of his cancer charity, will includeatinyphotographofthe campaign's iconic image of the child's righteyeandtheinternational Crimestoppers phone number.
In a sign of the huge support being offeredtothefamily,afamily-run business which makes similar bands for schoolchildren is hoping to recruit airlines around the world to give them outtopassengers.Themovewas revealed as Kate and Gerry McCann markthefirstmonthsincetheir daughterwassnatchedfromtheir holiday apartment in Portugal today.
Madeleine's aunt Diane McCann, 39, said: "The wristbands which range from tiny to adult sizes and will have our Looking ForMadeleine'slogan,thephone number and a wee picture of her eye. Wearethinking of the best way to distribute these."
ELF Safety, based in Reigate, Surrey, run by Sarah and Grant Teasdale, hopes to distribute 100,000 bands for Madeleine after talks with its Chinese suppliers. They already supply 750,000 schoolchildren with bands containing their school phone number and name for people to contact if they are lost.
Charity wristbands have become an increasingly fashionable way to show supportfororganisationssince Armstrong began wearing yellow bands to raise awareness of his Livestrong charity, which helps cancer sufferers and their families, after he fought back from the disease to win the Tour de France seven times.
Celebrities, footballers and politicians,includingtheprime minister, Tony Blair, who wore a white Make Poverty History band, have been seen wearing the symbols, which are moreaboutraisingawarenessthan raising funds for particular causes.
Sarah Teasdale, 39, a mother of three young children, said: "Although it is in the early stages, we hope to speak to the airlines about giving them out, possibly in return for a small donation. We are also looking at handing them out at airports generally, banks and theme parks. It could even be given out to long-haul lorry drivers. We don't honestly know where this could stop.
"You never know when this is going to happen to you and this is raising awareness for everybody to hopefully bring Madeleine home."
The family launched the firm, which is named after their children's initials, after helping a woman find her son on a beach two years ago. It now supplies every school in the country. Teasdale added: "It took about half an hour to find her and the woman was in panic. After that my daughter said if they had a phone number on a wrist band somebody could have phoned her to say she was alright."
Diane admitted she is struggling to readalloftheemailscontaining suggestionsforinitiativestofind Madeleine. She added: "It is driven by family, friends and friends of friends and people saying have you tried this or that?' We can't keep up with all of them."
Madeleine's parents spent yesterday privatelywiththeirtwinsSeanand Amelie as it was revealed Portuguese police have DNA evidence of a mystery person.Thesamplewasfoundin Madeleine's bedroom after hundreds of DNA samples were taken from the scene.
They are now trying to identify the sample, but it is not thought to match that of the chief suspect Robert Murat.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article