Runaway Helpline gets thousands of calls, emails and texts every week. Here are a few examples of the people we’ve helped.

As we are confidential we have not given the real names of the people we helped.

Sam

At Christmas 2008, Missing People launched a free text service to the Runaway Helpline number. The very first message we received had just one word - ‘help’. Sam, 13, had run away and wanted to harm himself. Sam said that no one cared. We cared. Missing People found Sam a safe place to go in his local area.

Tina

Tina was very upset when she called Runaway Helpline. She told us she was 11 and that she had been kicked out from home. Half way through the call Tina hung up. We did not hear back from Tina that night and we were worried about her.

Tina called us back a few days later and asked us to contact a Social Worker for her. We made the call and a Social Worker who agreed to call Tina in the phone box.

We heard from Tina a month later as she had run away again that morning. It was now very late at night. Tina was getting very cold and had nowhere to go. With our support Tina agreed to speak on the phone to a police officer. They agreed to pick Trina up and to make sure she had somewhere warm and safe to go that night.

Will

We first spoke to Will on a Saturday evening. He told us that he had run away because his dad had been hitting and kicking him. Will was now getting very behind at school.

Will was very scared and told us he was feeling very lonely. We encouraged Will to talk things through with a Social Worker. We were able to explain to the Social Worker that Will was worried about talking about what his dad.

Will is now staying with his mum and is safe and happy.