Mission that drives Madeleine's parents

The England cricket team yesterday became the latest high-profile sportsmen to wear the distinctive yellow ribbons that have been adopted as the symbol of hope for the safe return of Madeleine McCann.

The images were flashed across the globe in what has become the most intense media-driven search for a missing child the world has ever seen.

At the UEFA Cup final in Glasgow on Wednesday night, which featured two Spanish football teams, a film of Madeleine was broadcast at half-time.

DESAPARECIDA - which translates as disappeared - was the moving message beamed around Hampden Park to the 50,000 fans who had been asked in English "for your full attention".

It was aimed not just at the fans but, more importantly, at the television audience in their homeland which has not embraced the Madeleine phenomenon even though she might have been driven over the border after being snatched.

The soundtrack for the film was chosen carefully. It was the Simple Minds song Don't You Forget About Me. As if anyone could.

David Beckham, who plays for Real Madrid, has made a televised appeal after talking on the telephone to Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate. He followed in the designer footprints of Ronaldo, Portugal's most famous footballing export, who plays for Manchester United.

It was a shrewd move. The involvement of one of Portugal's most famous sons galvanised the country's media which is now devoting almost as much attention to the disappearance of the four-year-old as the British media.

It was Gerry McCann who thought of approaching Ronaldo. Everton, Chelsea and Celtic have also shown their support.

Yet many parents watching the unfolding drama may well be thinking that if they had been trapped in the same public ordeal they would not be able to face the press at all, let alone appear before the cameras on an often twice-daily basis.

The McCanns, who had no experience of the media until their daughter was snatched, have taken the totally opposite view.

The iconic photograph of them strolling arm-in-arm on the beach was not an accident. It was carefully stage-managed, as have been the daily trips to the church.

They have deliberately devised the photo-opportunities because they dread the media interest draining away. They are desperate to keep Madeleine on the front pages because they think it may lead to a sighting.

Sometimes their efforts can create uncomfortable images. Photographs appeared yesterday of Mrs McCann jogging, wearing black shorts and crop top, midriff on show.

While her trips to church seemed right, the sight of her devoting time to keep fit may have seemed disquieting.

But Mrs McCann was following the advice of two trauma consultants. Alan Pike and Martin Alderton from the Centre for Crisis Psychology flew to Portugal within hours of Madeleine going missing. They have been at the parents' side ever since. They told the couple to take a short amount of time out from each day for themselves. A walk or run is one of the techniques that they recommend.

Kevin Tasker, clinical director of the CCP, said: "We try to help them reinstate normal routines as soon as possible. That is what life is about. Every day is about routine.

"Work, social, home. And if you do not get back into that there will be times when you are alone and thinking too much, ruminating on negative thoughts." It was the trauma consultants who proposed that they go to the beach and do normal family things with their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

The jogging photographs confirmed the impression that Mr and Mrs McCann on the surface appear remarkably strong. But each night they are woken by nightmares. Each day they work in a makeshift office in their villa, planning the next initiative to remind the world that their daughter has not come home.

They discuss with their support network of family, friends, lawyers and one public relations adviser how to keep the search on the news bulletins. When they said yesterday that they had been overwhelmed by the response, they were not exaggerating.

Support has come from the most unlikely quarters. Even the publicity shy Harry Potter author J K Rowling, who has made a substantial but undisclosed donation to the £2.5 million reward offered in Britain, has been photographed wearing the yellow ribbon.

Miss Rowling, who once taught in Portugal, has young children and, like so many parents, is haunted by the fear that it could so easily have been her own family. The support network has cleverly tapped into that fear.

An online campaign has seen tens of thousands of emails containing images of the blonde-haired girl and the numbers for police information hotlines sent around the world.

Sky News says that more than 90,000 posters bearing Madeleine's image have been downloaded. The social networking internet site Facebook has seen more than 30 groups - with nearly 23,000 overall members - created with the purpose of finding her.

There is a highly professional Bring Madeleine Home website, built by a family member with IT skills, which received more than five million hits in the first 24 hours. More than 40 million people have visited since its setup, the site claimed today.

McDonalds has distributed photographs of the missing child at its Spanish restaurants while Vodafone sent text messages to its customers in Spain and Portugal. Emails promoting Madeleine's image have been initiated by Carphone Warehouse. Meanwhile, British Airways is distributing posters on its flights and the Royal Bank of Scotland, Spain's Baco Santander and France's Credit Agricole are distributing thousands of posters in their branches

The announcement of an appeal fund may have triggered some unease coming so soon after the police investigated the fund set up in memory of Lucie Blackman, the British hostess dismembered in Japan. The explanation was straightforward.

The family had been swamped with cheques from wellwishers, ranging from eight-year-olds giving up their pocket money to distraught pensioners.

It is being fronted by Esther McVey, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Wirral, who briefly found fame as a GMTV presenter. Ms McVey has been friends with Mrs McCann since they studied A-levels together in 1986 in West Derby, Liverpool.

The cash pouring in will be used for the family's living costs in Portugal and possibly to hire private detectives if the police run down their investigation. Any surplus will be given to charity.

The couple have been advised by Alex Woolfall, 40, a crisis management public relations expert, who works for Lord Bell, the public relations expert who masterminded Margaret Thatcher's three election victories. Bell Pottinger, Lord Bell's company, acts for Mark Warner, the holiday resort.

Mr Woolfall said: "Gerry and Kate developed a strong resilience and came up with ideas for how they could generate publicity for Madeleine's search. I would then try to make them work."

The strategy has been a success in one respect as the disappearance of Madeleine has been reported as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Texas, and the United States. But there have been days when the couple, wracked with grief and doubts, have barely been able to force themselves from their beds let alone talk to the media.

Mr Woolfall said: "Gerry and Kate believe that Madeleine is alive and that the media can help find her. It that which has has kept them going. It is their strategy which we have followed. It is amazing what strengths people find."