A balloon release will be held by the Red Cross to keep alive the memory of missing people on the sixth annual Day of the Disappeared.
British Red Cross volunteers will release 60 red ballons outside their offices at Unity House, Grantham, to symbolise the 60 people from this region they are currently trying to trace.
The Red Cross’ family tracing service is dedicated to reuniting people with loved ones they may have lost contact due to wars or other violence.
The balloon release will be held at 10.30am on Friday. Members of the public are welcome to go along and support the charity.
Cathy Stevenson, senior services manager for international family tracing in Lincolnshire, said: “Our service users, staff, volunteers and key partners are coming along to the day to help us to remember those who are lost. People may not be aware of our family tracing work, which is a free and confidential service.”
Although the majority of the service’s work is related to wars in countries such as Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan, they are currently working on over 1,300 cases in the UK. There are 60 ongoing cases in the Leicestrshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire area alone.
Over 10 per cent of the case load relates to families trying to discover the fate of relatives from World War Two.
If someone has lost contact with a family member, they can find out how to go about tracing them at www.redcross.org.uk/trace