By LIZ GRIFFITHS and CHRIS GRAEME [email protected]
Following their short visit to Lisbon on September 23, Gerry and Kate McCann said that going back to the country where Madeleine disappeared had felt like a “positive move”.
On her return from Portugal, Kate McCann competed in a two-mile fun run in Leicestershire where she was joined by 800 other competitors for the Great Kibworth Charity Run.
She ran in a vest with her daughter Madeleine’s face printed across it with “Don’t give up on me” written below, while her husband Gerry was at the finishing line to support his wife.
Kate McCann said that they “need to keep going” and hope they “get the bit of information they really need”.
She also said that it “felt good” to be back in Portugal and that the couple had felt there was “a bit of support” for them there.
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said of their visit to Portugal: “It is very important that we can get the message across to the Portuguese media and the public that the search for Madeleine is continuing.”
A tearful Kate McCann admitted last week at a press conference at the Dom Pedro Hotel in Lisbon that she cried for Madeleine every day.
It was Kate’s first time back in Portugal since her arguido, or suspect status, was lifted and she admitted to feeling “a little scared” at the prospect of returning.
Accompanied by her husband, she said: “I cry for Madeleine every day, it is hard to describe how painful the past 29 months have been.”
The couple made a flying visit to Lisbon to hold meetings with their lawyers, Rogério Alves and Isabel Duarte, as well as with their Portuguese advisors.
“I have received instructions from the family to take legal action against the book by Gonçalo Amaral (the former PJ detective who led the investigation and wrote Maddie -The Truth of the Lie), the video and interviews which put forward the thesis that Madeleine is dead and that the McCanns had something to do with it,” said Rogério Alves.
The couple are seeking 1.2 million euros (one million pounds) in damages for libel.
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