Ride to Find
The face of missing postman Carl Hodges (pictured) is to appear on the delivery bags of Deliveroo riders as part of a campaign by missing persons charity, Missing People.
Food delivery company Deliveroo has partnered with Missing People for the ‘Ride to Find’ campaign in the lead up to Mother’s Day.
Beginning on Friday 28 February, the campaign will see posters of missing people put on the delivery bags of more than 500 Deliveroo riders across major UK cities – including London, Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff and Manchester – to help raise awareness of people who are missing across the UK.
It is now six years since Royal Mail Group partnered with Missing People, the only charity in the UK which is dedicated to bringing missing children and adults back together with their families.
Our partnership initially came about due to an idea from postman and CWU rep, Vincent Micallef, who approached the business with an idea to use PDAs to receive high-risk Missing People alerts.
One person who is still missing from the hundreds of alerts we have sent out is former colleague, Carl Hodges, who hasn’t been seen since 3 February 2016. Carl went missing from Northwood, Middlesex.
It goes without saying that Carl’s family still miss him terribly and would love to know that he is safe and well. As part of the Ride to Find campaign, Carl’s picture will be one of the many seen on Deliveroo’s delivery bags. Click here to watch Missing People’s chief executive, Jo Youle, appearing on the London Live programme alongside Carl’s partner, Charlie Ougham, who talks about the devastating impact Carl’s disappearance has had on her family.
Someone is reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK. 80% are found within 24 hours, but one in five cases takes longer. If someone goes missing for more than a week, their chances of being found reduce dramatically. For these people, every second counts and the more people who see pictures of the missing person, the greater the chances that they are found.
Together, Missing People and Deliveroo will raise awareness of vulnerable missing people, encouraging communities to join the search and bring people to safety.
To further increase the force of the search, every single rider in Deliveroo’s 30,000+ fleet will be encouraged by the company to sign up to receive Missing People’s Child Rescue Alerts.
Missing People provides free and confidential support by phone, text or email 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to anyone affected by a disappearance. As a charity, Missing People is reliant on donations to provide this support. To help raise donations, Deliveroo has specially designed a Missing People donation restaurant within its app, named ‘Ride to Find’ where customers can choose to donate from £3.50 to £1,000.
