McCanns ‘philosophical’ about hunt for daughter

KATE and Gerry McCann remain “philosophical” about the hunt for their missing daughter, despite the disappointment that a young girl spotted in Morocco was not Madeleine, relatives said last night.

It emerged on Wednesday that a young girl in a Spanish tourist’s holiday photograph was five-year-old Bushra Binhisa, the daughter of a local olive farmer, and not Madeleine.

Kate McCann’s aunt, Janet Kennedy, said the couple had seen their hopes of a sighting dashed before.

Ms Kennedy spoke yesterday as she joined charity volunteers to package up more than 2,000 cuddly toys and dolls left in the family’s village of Rothley, Leicester, during the search for the four-year-old after she went missing in Portugal.

“Inevitably it is a disappointment,” she said. “I think they are very philosophical about it, because it’s happened so many times.

“Just suppose Madeleine is in Morocco, what does that mean? You just have to keep on. We are still keeping on with the campaign.”

Thousands of toys and gifts were left by well-wishers at Rothley’s war memorial in the days after Madeleine went missing.

The gifts were removed over the summer along with thousands of yellow and green ribbons tied to railings at the memorial which had became a focal point for prayers for Madeleine.

The toys were gathered up and carefully washed by parents from the village’s two primary schools and are now set to be shipped to children in Belarus.

All the messages attached to the toys have been kept by Kate and Gerry.

Two orphanages in Zhodina, 30km from capital Minsk, and Bobrusk in the south of the former Russian republic, will receive the toys next week.

Each toy was individually tied with green and yellow ribbons — the symbol of hope in Portugal — and carrying a tag with a small picture of Madeleine.

Ms Kennedy said: “There was something that touched people and a token of this was the toys and messages.

“They were trying in a sense I suppose to send a message to Madeleine really.

“They identified with the fact that she was a little girl no longer with her parents. Toys are a comfort, they are the essence of childhood.

“The village became a focal point for people’s concern. We are just ordinary people and we took enormous comfort from that.”

Ms Kennedy, a retired teacher who lives in Rothley, added: “The family are translating this into thinking where our loss in a sense can actually make good some other children’s lives, because they wouldn’t normally have a toy of their own.

“It’s trying to make something positive out of a situation that’s difficult for us.”

Jane Simmonds, regional manager for Samaritan’s Purse which is shipping the 15 cartons of toys to southern Belarus next week, said: “It is incredible knowing that this family was thinking of other children and of those toys whilst they were in such turmoil themselves.”

Nearly £300,000 (€430,000) from a fund has been spent so far on the search for Madeleine.