Sunday MercuryShowbiz event for MaddieJan 24, 2010
SOPHIE CROSS
THE parents of Madeleine McCann are to hold a showbiz fundraising event on the 1,000th day since her disappearance.
Kate and Gerry McCann have organised the star-studded event at exclusive venue The Roof Gardens in Kensington, London, on Wednesday - the date of the grim anniversary.
High-profile figures set to attend the pounds 150-a-ticket dinner and auction include Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson.
The Leicestershire couple hope the private event will boost donations to the Find Madeleine appeal, which they fear could be in danger of drying up.
Nearly pounds 2 million has been donated to the fund since the three-year-old disappeared from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 in 2007.
Half of the money raised from the anniversary event will go to the appeal, with the other half split between the charities Missing People and Missing Children Europe. Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell has said the couple felt it was right to mark the 1,000-day anniversary with the fundraiser. He added: "The public have been very kind over the Publicity last three years and continue to make donations, but it is prudent to consider ways of keeping a funding stream running so the search can continue."
Kate and Gerry feared negative publicity over the libel trial involving former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral - who initially led the investigation into their daughter's disappearance - could hinder donations to the search fund.
Earlier this month the couple, both aged 41 and from Rothley, Leicestershire, flew to Lisbon to hear Mr Amaral attempt to overturn a ban on his book, The Truth Of The Lie.
The hearing was adjourned until February 10.
Mr Amaral, 50, has vowed to keep appealing if he cannot lift the injunction banning publication of the book, which has sold more than 200,000 copies and is set to be made into a documentary film.
It was withdrawn from shelves last September, until the outcome of the court case.
The McCanns have always insisted Maddy was abducted but Mr Amaral has suggested she is dead and that the couple were involved in her disappearance.
In a note on their website,
www.findmadeleine.com, Kate McCann wrote: "The search for Madeleine must go on until we find her and bring her abductor(s) to justice."
Photo: FUNDRAISER: Kate and Gerry McCann are organising an event to mark 1,000 days since Maddie disappeared.
