To mark Madeleine McCann's 14th birthday, her parents Kate and Gerry McCann have shared a message meant for her
Any parent who has lost a child will undoubtedly find every day difficult to cope with, but there will be some days that are worse than others.
All those Christmases and family holidays that they will no longer be there for. Even all the other chlidren going back to school in September can be a harsh reminder.
And, of course, their birthdays.
READ MORE | Madeleine McCann timeline: A decade since her disappearance
In one of the biggest ever missing child cases ever, Kate and Gerry McCann lost their daughter Madeleine, who went missing whilst they were on holiday ten years ago at the age of three.
Today, on what would have been her 14th birthday, the McCanns have shared a defiant but devastated message to their daughter on Facebook.
They changed the Facebook cover photo of their page, Official Find Madeleine Campaign, to a now-famous shot of little Maddie clutching tennis balls.
It read: "Happy 14th birthday, Madeleine! We love you and we're waiting for you and we're never going to give up," with a link to their site, findmadeleine.com.
This comes just a little over a week after the 10th anniversary of Maddie's disappearance.
Kate and Gerry chose to do one interview to mark the occasion, but did not want to draw any more attention to it.
Speaking to Fiona Bruce in an interview for the BBC, Gerry explained that Kate still buys birthday and Christmas present for Maddie.
Fiona asked: "Last time we talked, you told me how you were still buying birthday presents and Christmas presents for Madeleine. With 10 years now, are you still doing that?"
Kate responded: "I still do that yeah. You couldn't not. I think about what age she is and something that, whenever we find her, will still be appropriate so there's a lot of thought goes into it. But I couldn't not, you know, she's still our daughter, she'll always be our daughter."
The parents went on to explain that, whilst every day without her is unbearable, the anniversary would be hard. Kate said: "Every day is another day without Madeleine. I think it's just that number, that 10-year mark, which makes it more significant.
"That is a reminder of how much time has gone by and obviously 10 is a big number. I think we'll get by as we have any other year really, we'll be surrounded by family and friends, you know, obviously we'll be there remembering Madeleine, as we always have."
Gerry added: "I think the day and the poignancy of it, that we don't tend to go back to the time, because it's so draining but inevitably on anniversaries and her birthday they are by far the hardest days, by far."
We send our best wishes to the family at this difficult time. ❤️
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