MADELEINE McCann’s parents will lay gifts in her untouched bedroom today to mark her 16th birthday.
A party to honour the missing youngster is due to take place at their Leicestershire home, as Gerry and Kate posted a message to her saying they are “never going to give up”.
The McCann’s wrote on the Official Find Madeleine Campaign Facebook page: “Happy 16th Birthday, Madeleine!
“We love you and we’re waiting for you and we’re never going to give up.”
Mum Kate, 51, has bought gifts for her bedroom, unchanged since she vanished in Portugal in 2007, aged three.
A family pal said: “There will be prayers and quiet reflection but also a cake and presents to mark her turning 16, a significant age.”
Earlier this month Kate and husband Gerry, 50, shared their heartache at her imminent birthday,saying: “She should be here and we should be celebrating with her.”
The couple, from Rothley, Leics, posted online: “The months and years roll by too quickly.
“It’s impossible to put into words just how that makes us feel. There is comfort and reassurance though in knowing that the investigation continues and many people around the world remain vigilant.”
Former GP Kate, now a medical worker, has carefully chosen gifts to reflect Maddie’s sweet sixteenth.
She has placed them along with messages of support in her daughter’s pretty pink bedroom which has become a shrine to her and is believed to have stayed frozen in time since she was abducted during a family holiday in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Three-year-old Maddie was snatched just nine days away from her fourth birthday. With no evidence she is dead, her parents desperately cling onto a glimmer of hope that she could still be found alive. And they have vowed to carry on looking for their daughter “for as long as it takes.”
As a significant sixteener Maddie could now legally leave both school and home under British law, get wed, work full time and change her name by deed poll.
Maddie has never attended school in England. She was a nursery pupil when she disappeared and yet to start primary education but could be set to be leave secondary school here next month (June) if she opted out of sixth form.
Great uncle Brian Kennedy said: “It would be lovely to have a real celebration one day. We never lose hope.”
Kate has previously spoken about Maddie’s birthday – a day that is particularly difficult “because that’s when you really feel her absence”.
She revealed: “I do all the present buying. I think about what age she is and buy something that, whenever we find her, will still be appropriate so there’s a lot of thought goes into it.”
Anguished Kate still spends precious moments each day in Maddie’s bedroom which she in the past revealed has “shocking pink walls and stars on the ceiling” and where her dolls and teddies are on display, along with an ever growing number of presents.
She said she could never ignore Maddie’s birthday and the family “still celebrates her being part of our lives”.
She added: “Everything’s the same and there are photographs all around the house. Whether it be a birthday, family occasion or even an achievement that is when you really feel her absence.”
She also told how she often sees her eldest child as she was when she was kidnapped to envisaging her as she would be now.
Detectives believe she was stolen by child traffickers, sex fiends or during a burglary gone wrong and are understood to be closing in on a suspect.
Scotland Yard are still chasing “two final lines of inquiry” with an extra £300,000 funding set to be pledged by the Home Office to keep their Operation Grange investigation going until the end of March next year.
