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Praia da Luz: The parents of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann have revealed for the first time that they have been forced to face the fear that their daughter may be dead.
"It would be incredible not to consider the worst scenario: that she is dead," her father Gerry said. "Of course we have considered that, but we believe she is alive. If you give up hope you are basically saying she is dead. No parent would do that."
It is now a month since Madeleine was abducted from the family's apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve. Her parents were eating supper in a nearby tapas bar when she was snatched while she slept on the evening of May 3. Madeleine and her siblings, two-year-old twins Amelie and Sean, had been left alone, although their parents were checking on their children every 30 minutes.
From their base in Praia da Luz, the couple, both doctors, also spoke yesterday of their guilt but said they refused to blame each other for their daughter's disappearance a month ago.
"We are in this together and, of course we feel guilty, we feel that we've let her down, we were not there at the moment she was abducted," Gerry said. "But we have never subconsciously or consciously thought it was Kate's fault or my fault - we're a couple in this, we're responsible parents."
The plans for global events come after a month-long campaign by the McCanns to keep their daughter's image in the media.
In a series of carefully orchestrated trips and interviews, they have worked tirelessly to help publicise the plight of their daughter who was abducted just nine days before her fourth birthday. This week they will travel to Berlin, Amsterdam and possibly Morocco. Last week they flew to Rome on a private jet owned by Sir Philip Green, the British businessman, to meet the Pope and afterwards, still clutching Madeleine's increasingly tatty soft toy Cuddle Cat, they met Spanish interior ministers.
Harry Potter bookmark and Maddy Day
The McCanns, whose daughter disappeared a month ago, disclosed how they are drawing up a long-term strategy to keep Madeleine's plight in the public eye.
They are hoping J.K. Rowling, the author, will consent to a bookmark bearing Madeleine's photograph being inserted into the final instalment of the Harry Potter series, due to be published next month. They are also planning a Madeleine Day as well as a series of concerts, sports and arts events. "We want a big event to raise awareness that she is still missing," McCann, 38, said. "It will be some sort of focus around an anniversary. We might have a sporting event, something arts, something music. We have also had backing from certain musical celebrities such as Elton John."
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