The mothers of Gran Canarias missing children, Sara Morales and Yeremi Vargas stood in solidarity with the mother of missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick. A press conference was held at the Vecindario market, hosted by the Councillor for Security in Santa Lucia, Luis Campos, and many locals came to take posters and stand in silence with the parents

Missing Amy!
The parents of missing Amy travel to Gran Canaria to raise awareness of her disappearance

The family of Amy Fitzpatrick will have understood exactly how the parents of a young Gran Canarian girl felt earlier in the week when she went missing for several days.

Thankfully, it was a story with a happy end; a happy end that Amy’s mum, Audrey, is praying and waiting for. She’s travelled to Gran Canaria with Amy’s stepfather, Dave, to raise awareness of her daughter’s disappearance on January 1st 2008 from the Costa del Sol. Originally from Dublin, the family relocated to the mainland of Spain five years ago and although Amy’s accent sounded more English than Irish, she was capable of conversing well in Spanish, “and she never shut up talking!”

Rhianna fan Amy loves eating food, talking, swimming and singing; and spent many hours on her computer. “She had no reason to run away, she hadn’t used her phone or passport, she took no make up with her (which she wouldn’t leave behind), and she has not logged onto any of her internet accounts,” explains her mum who says that staying focused and drawing on her faith is helping her to get through each day. She has received a letter from Queen Elizabeth and Downing Street and has had an audience with the Irish Prime Minister three times.

Audrey and Dave, who are unable to work whilst they campaign to find their daughter, say it’s the support and prayers of everyone that helps them as each morning the nightmare realisation that she is not home is the first and constant thought throughout the day.

They have spoken highly of the tremendous support they have received from the Canarians and ex-pats and ran out of their 10,000 leaflets within two days; “a lovely Canarian Taxi driver came to the Casa Blanca hotel at 5 o’clock so that he could distribute the posters to the other drivers…the manager has been translating for us and the people on Gran Canaria have been so kind.” Steve from Rapid Print swiftly printed more posters and Dublin man Steve York, from the Harp, Puerto Rico, who has had many posters brought over from Ireland from his clients, displays them in his bar. “The parents are lovely people; they just keep going even though they are in a goldfish bowl. The put on a brave face and wont let anyone forget….it must be so difficult.”

Another Dubliner, Sinead from family run bar Molly Malone’s, explained that their resident band ‘Celtic Storm’ are printing Amy’s picture on the back of their CD’s and that Irish customers already know about Amy’s disappearance. “It is well publicised in Ireland so our clients are talking about her. It’s a most horrific situation for the parents…living grief. They are lovely people.”

Whilst police slowly search Amy Fitzpatricks’s 3000 contacts you can log onto the official www.missingamy.com website visit the BeBo, Face book or My Space pages.

Amy is 1.65m (5’4”) tall, has a small, slight frame and has piercing blue eyes. She is known to regularly change her hair colour.

No mother should have to be away from her child on their birthday; light a candle for Amy Fitzpatrick and her family on the 7th February. She will be seventeen years old. 00 34 617 561319.

If you have any information on a missing person call 112.