‘Help us find someone’

Since November 2014, Royal Mail has been working with the charity, Missing People to provide additional eyes and ears in the search for vulnerable individuals up and down the country.

We have made our extensive hand-held scanner network available to the charity to distribute high-risk missing people and child rescue alerts. 

Missing People offers a lifeline for the 180,000 people who run away and go missing every year in the UK. The mobilisation of our postmen and women and other frontline colleagues doubled the number of people supporting the efforts of the charity, increasing the chances that missing individuals will be found. To date, we have issued more than 200 alerts to colleagues.

When a loved one goes missing, friends and family face an anxious wait for their return or to find out what has happened to them. The covid-19 pandemic has magnified this uncertainty and mental torment felt by those whose loved ones have disappeared.

Due to the lockdown, families with a missing loved one are unable to go out and search for them, and children and young people are stuck in unsafe domestic environments. Last month, 54 per cent more children and young people sought support via Missing People’s live chat than the monthly average in 2019/20.

Due to the current restrictions, the charity cannot rely on vital funds from events such as the London Marathon to raise the income they need this year. One way you can support Missing People is to set up a regular donation via our ‘Payroll giving’ scheme.

Your regular donation will enable the charity to keep our communication channels open to support people in crisis. Payroll giving is the most tax-effective way to donate as your donations are deducted before tax is paid.

• £3.50 could send 10 TextSafe messages directly to the phone of a missing child or adult, letting them know that Missing People are there 24/7 to support them.
• £5 could enable a supervisor to support a vulnerable teenager over Missing People’s ‘121 LiveChat’ system.
• £10 could help the team pick up the phone to help support a mother whose son is missing during the crisis, and who has nowhere else to turn.
• £20 could manage a three-way call with a teenager and their parents, helping to pave the way towards a reconciliation.
• £30 could pay for a counselling session for the mother of a missing child.

If you would like to find out more about Payroll giving and how to register, please click here.