Kerry Needham, 52, vowed never to stop searching for he son Ben Needham, who vanished on the Greek island of Kos on July 24, 1991 when he was just 21 months old


Kerry Needham has issued a message on her son’s 35th birthday

The mum of Ben Needham has released a heart-breaking message to her missing son to mark his 35th birthday on Tuesday.

In an emotional statement, Kerry Needham, 52, vowed never to stop searching for him, “even if it kills me”. She told Ben: “Happy birthday my beautiful boy, you are always in my thoughts and my heart. Another year has gone by in our search for you and we will continue to search until the truth is found, we will never give up.

“A birthday should be a day for ­celebration but every year I spend the day thinking where are you?!! What more can I do to find you?”

Kerry is urging those who may know what happened to speak out, saying the family deserve the truth after years of torment. Ben vanished on the Greek island of Kos on July 24, 1991 when he was just 21-months-old. Talking to the Mirror, she added: “I wish someone would just have a heart and come forward with the ­information I desperately need.

A picture of Ben
Ben went missing in 1991(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

“There are people on Kos who ­definitely know what happened to Ben and I don’t know how they can sleep at night knowing the torment I go through year after year. I’ll never give up searching for the truth even if it kills me, we deserve to know the truth.”

Kerry had moved to Kos with her parents, who were babysitting when Ben was last seen playing outside with his toy cars 33 years ago. South Yorkshire Police, who carried out two extensive searches in 2012 and 2017, said it was most likely he died in a digger accident. But blood found on a toy car in 2017 did not belong to Ben.

Kerry believes he may have been abducted. DNA tests this year ruled a man, who thought he could be Ben, was not a match. Kerry, from Sheffield, lives in Turkey to be near the island but admitted to the Mirror recently: “Kos makes me feel physically sick.”

Kerry says she will light a candle next to a birthday card for her son in what is always a “heartbreaking day”.