McCanns staying positive after one year without Madeleine
Madeleine McCann's parents retain hope family will be reunited
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Saturday, 03, May 2008 07:32
On the one-year anniversary since their daughter Madeleine disappeared Kate and Gerry McCann have reiterated their belief the four-year-old is alive.
Madeleine has not been seen since being left alone in her parents' holiday villa in Praia da Luz, the Algarve, on May 3rd 2007.
Click here to read a timeline of the 365 days Madeleine McCann has been missing
Speaking to inthenews.co.uk, a spokeswoman for the McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, said a crucial breakthrough in the case could be just around the corner.
"Kate and Gerry continue to be optimistic that Madeleine is alive," the representative said.
"There is no evidence that she has been harmed."
Church services are being held in Portugal and the UK to mark the anniversary, although Madeleine's parents will be marking the day privately with their two-year=-old twins Sean and Amelie.
Supporters are being asked to light candles and turn their porch lights on between 21:30 BST and 22:00 BST - the time last year that Madeleine disappeared.
Madeleine's favourite football club Everton will be turning on their floodlights for half an hour tonight.
Reports last week in the build-up to the anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance had claimed the McCanns were planning to release a book to raise funds to help find their daughter.
But the spokeswoman explained claims a deal had already been signed were "incorrect".
"We have many offers and might consider them for the future. For now there is no contract for a book deal," she said.
Mr and Mrs McCann remain official suspects - 'arguidos' - in Portuguese police's investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, along with British expat Robert Murat.
Last week the McCanns appeared in the ITV1 documentary Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign for Change, in which Mrs McCann said that being named as an arguida was like being planted "in the middle of a horror movie".
The documentary, which followed the couple as they began their campaign for an early warning system for missing children across Europe, also featured Mrs McCann's realisation the police investigation was centred on the theory Madeleine was dead, meaning detectives were no longer looking for her.
"And it was just I mean, just, I just felt yet again my daughter's had such disservice and I just, I mean I was obviously upset by that, very upset and I was angry you know," she said.
"And I just thought she deserves so much better than that."
Mr McCann meanwhile said the family was trying to retain normal lives for the sake of their twins Sean and Amelie.
"Your life is carrying on to an extent, in a quasi-real existence, a purgatory type existence," he explained.
"We are kind of between something real and never finding out."