The wife of missing hiker Finn Creaney has offered comfort to the family of Nicola Bulley, who disappeared while walking her dog.
The Lancashire mum has now been seen since January 27, and searches are continuing.
Lucy Creaney, whose husband Finn was reported missing after failing to return from a solo hike at Loch Naver in the Highlands last March, is urging Ms Bulley’s family to stay positive.
She said: “You have to believe you will find the person you’ve lost”.
Mr Creaney, from Tain, had been attempting to hike 40 miles and was described as an “experienced and confident survivalist”.
Several confirmed sightings placed his last location near the Highland village of Lairg, with his wife receiving a voicemail from him at 12.52pm on March 25 last year.
In his last message, Mr Creaney told her “I love you lots and I’m really proud of you”.
When he failed to return from his trip, Mrs Creaney reported him missing prompting a large search and rescue response.
‘Try not to give in to despair’
Writing in The Telegraph, Mrs Creaney said she was still hopeful that the family will “bring him home”, as the first anniversary of his disappearance looms.
The disappearance has similarities to Ms Bulley, who was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire on January 27.
Since then, emergency services have been carrying out extensive searches for the missing mum-of-two, which have now moved 12 miles along the river to the sea.
Mrs Creaney wrote: “As the family of missing mother Nicola Bulley will know, the uncertainty is torture, it is pain. You don’t know how it will end, but you have to believe you will find the person you’ve lost. People don’t just vanish off the face of the earth.”
She is still insistent her husband had no reason to disappear of his own volition, describing him as a “lovely, happy, giving soul”, as she urged Nicola’s family to stay strong.
She added: “What I’d say to Nicola’s family is keep the faith.
“You can’t control the situation, that’s one of the hardest things in a missing person case, but you can believe in the person you love and try not to give in to despair.”
Conversation