Nine years ago in one week, I was in a hospital in Auckland’s Greenlane giving birth the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me, my son. But a few thousand kilometres away, Denise Morcombe was busy combing the bush of her home and the surrounding area for her son. She was waiting for him to come bounding back through her doorway, a hundred miles an hour, telling her of the adventures he’d had. She was looking through every crowd in every shopping centre, in every school, in every car, on every bus for her beautiful sparkly-eyed missing boy, Daniel.

Unfortunately today, she laid that beautiful boy to rest. She never got the chance to see him turn 21, to watch him grow into a young man…or to have children of his own. She never got to see him fulfill his dream of one day becoming a vet. She never got to see him go to his high school prom, bring home his first girlfriend or even watch on anxiously the first time he learnt to drive a car.

For the Morcombe family there are many holes in the lives of his parents and his brothers who are left behind. There is a gaping chasm of ‘what if’s’, ‘maybes’ and ‘one days’ that they’ll never be able to share.

Their son and brother was tragically taken in the most horrific – yet completely normal – of circumstances. It was broad daylight, a busy highway, an area he knew but still, his life was ever so tragically cut short.

What his parents have done for the Sunshine Coast community, for the Queensland State and for the wider nation is nothing short of extraordinary. They have never once given up their crusade, not only to find their son, but to fight for his justice and to keep a reminder in the parents and children of our society of the most important factor in life…safety.

They are incredibly brave, courageous, selfless and tenacious humanitarians who have made it their life ambition to see some positive out of the most horrific of circumstances for which they faced. If you do one thing tonight, let it be to say a prayer for the beautiful almost 14-year-old boy they lost and the never-ending crusade for which they have never stopped fighting.

God bless your beautiful spirit Daniel, may it soar so high…

Love n hugs, Lady Mama G xox