Madeleine McCann’s parents will celebrate with family and friends as their twins become teenagers a decade after their daughter went missing.
Gerry and Kate will remember Maddie with prayers during a joint 13th birthday for her siblings Sean and Amelie.
The pair, who are both aspiring athletes, will be surrounded by loved ones for the milestone, while a guest said ‘their only wish is for their big sister to come home’.
Gerry and Kate will remember Maddie (shown left) with prayers during a joint 13th birthday for her siblings Sean and Amelie (pictured right, in 2007)
The guest told The Sun: ‘There will be prayers to remember Madeleine as well wherever she is.
‘Kate and Gerry want to give the twins a memorable occasion, they’re teenagers now and that’s a big deal.
‘But the party will be marred with a tinge of sadness because Madeleine is not here to join in the fun.’
Mrs McCann, a former GP, now a medical worker, and heart doctor husband Gerry cling on to a glimmer of hope that their eldest child, who would now be 14, could one day return home.
Sean and Amelie, who are both aspiring athletes, will be surrounded by loved ones for the milestone, while a guest said ‘their only wish is for their big sister to come home’
Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007 while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant.
The police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance is still active, and despite being the subject of one of the biggest missing person investigations of all time, no trace of her has ever been found.
In September detectives were handed an extra £154,000 to continue the decade-long search.
The figure brings the total spending in 2017-18 on Operation Grange to £309,000 and the overall cost to around £11.5million.
Senior detectives have said they expect the investigation to continue until at least March, explaining that the final element of their probe proved much more ‘complex’ than had first been expected.
The size of the extra cash award raised hopes that the force was closing in on identifying whoever abducted the three-year-old but also raised questions about what the money would be spent on, as only four officers remain on the case.
The investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance is still active, and despite being the subject of one of the biggest missing person investigations of all time, no trace has ever been found