A child goes missing in the UK every 3 minutes. Here’s how you can help.

An unbelievable 140,000 young people go missing every year, according to UK charity Missing People, including 100,000 children under the age of 16 – that’s 3 every second. Many of these young people run away from home or care, while others are abducted by a stranger or family member. Perhaps most staggering is that two third of these young people are not reported as missing to the police by their parent or carer.

If you want to help, you can do so easily by joining Stephen Fry for the annual Big Tweet on 25th May 2015. All you have to do is follow @missingpeople on Twitter where the charity will be sending out a different child’s appeal and photograph every 30 minutes, and retweet it using hashtag #thebigtweet.

Last year there were just under 60,000 retweets, which resulted in at least 2 missing children being found.

“This is an issue that can affect any of us,” says our Chief Executive Alastair Mackinnon. “The tragedy of a missing loved one, of any age, is hard to imagine. We’re pleased to be supporting this work through helping to make the cause and the work of Missing People more widely known.”

This year’s digital event comes at the same time as the launch for an enhanced Child Rescue Alert system to help safeguard vulnerable children whose lives are in danger. To sign up and for more information, visit www.childrescuealert.org.uk/

If you’d like to join us in taking part in the Big Tweet for Missing Children, you can find more information at www.missingpeople.org.uk/bigtweet