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A The young woman who went missing 50 times as a child after “feeling lost in the world” is now helping other vulnerable youngsters find their way home.
Jade Knight, 23, was 15 and finding it difficult to deal with her Type 1 diabetes when she walked out of the hospital and disappeared for the first time.
“I was really struggling with my chronic illness and feeling lost in the world,” she said. Independent“I didn’t know what ‘missing’ was – I just went out to run. I didn’t take a phone with me or anything. I just went because I needed somewhere to breathe. Basically, I went for a walk, and decided I couldn’t go back, I couldn’t cope with the things I had to face in life.”
His parents reported him missing to the police, who quickly found him – but the sequence continued. Over the next few years, Jade went missing dozens of times.
After one of them went missing she came into contact with the charity Missing People, which she says changed her life.
“There were times when talking to the Missing People charity really helped me get back,” he said. “They made me feel very safe and gave me the space to talk about what I needed to talk about.”
One incident almost proved fatal. At the age of 16, Jade went into a coma after disappearing again, her physical health deteriorating as a result of diabetes. “I had a tracheostomy, and my parents didn’t know if I would ever wake up. I was in intensive care for about two weeks, and I was very lucky to wake up,” she said. “When I did that, I couldn’t even sit up. I lost a lot of my fine motor skills. It was the most powerless feeling.”
donate Here Or text SAFE to 70577 to give £10 – enough to cover one child support
She remembers that moment as a turning point. “You’re 16 years old and suddenly you can’t do everything you wanted to do,” she said. “But mentally, that was such a struggle because my outlet was disappearing. Now as someone who can’t get out of bed without support, I’ve lost that. But it completely shaped my future. That experience made me realize that life is too short – and maybe this negative energy could be channeled into something good.”
During occupational therapy, he began writing down goals for the future, one of which was to run a marathon. Three years later, in 2021, he ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon for Missing People, raising money for the charity, which he says “saved my life”. the day after talking to IndependentHe ran his third major world marathon in New York.
“I fell in love with running,” she said. “It gave me the same outlet that [going] Disappeared – that kind of freedom.
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Jade, who now lives in Maidstone, studied professional policing at university and now works for the ambulance service. He has spoken in Parliament and worked with police forces across the UK to improve their missing children programmes.
“I’m really blessed every day that not only was I able to overcome this, but now I have the opportunity to make a change and support future generations in the case of missing persons,” she said.
According to the National Crime Agency, more than 70,000 children were reported missing in almost 210,000 incidents in 2023-24, meaning one child goes missing in the UK every two and a half minutes. 61 percent of all incidents recorded by police involve teenagers aged 12 to 17, and on average one missing child dies every week.
Jade said she was not surprised by the figures. “Being a teenager is the hardest time of your life,” she said. “The pandemic and the lack of funding for children’s mental health have made it even worse. This is a problem we need to solve now, because every time these children go missing, it doesn’t matter if it’s the first or the fiftieth – they are at just as much risk every time.”
She believes in the new service being launched by SafeCall Independent And Missing People will be “life-changing” for children in crisis.
“For any young person who feels like they want to disappear, please know that there is support out there for you,” she said. “Just because you feel this way now, doesn’t mean you’ll always feel that way. Things can change, and you have that power. And who knows – in six months’ time you could be right where I am, telling your story of hope and helping others who haven’t found their way yet.”
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Please Donate Now The Independent and Missing People’s SafeCall campaign to help raise £165,000 for the free service to support and protect vulnerable young people.
If you or someone you love is missing, text or call the charity Missing People on 116000 for advice, support and options. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental, or visit missingpeople.org.uk/get-help