Jade Knight: ‘I went missing 50 times as a child – I need to stop it happening to others’
A. A young woman who got lost 50 times as a child because she “felt lost in the world” is now helping other vulnerable young people find their way home.
Jade Knight, 23, was 15 and struggling to cope with her type 1 diabetes when she left 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 ‘lack’ was; I just went out to escape. I didn’t take a phone or anything with me. I just went because I needed a place to breathe. In the beginning, I went for a walk and decided that I couldn’t go back, that I couldn’t face what I had to face in life.”
His family reported him missing to the police, who quickly found him, but the situation continued. Over the next few years, Jade would disappear dozens of times.
After one of her losses, she contacted the charity Missing People and said it changed her life.
“There were times when conversations with the Missing People charity really helped me come back,” he said. “They made me feel safe enough and gave me the space to talk about the things I needed to talk about.”
One episode was nearly fatal. After she disappeared again, 16-year-old Jade fell into a coma, her physical health deteriorating due to diabetes. “I had a tracheostomy and my family didn’t know if I would ever wake up. I was in intensive care for about two weeks and I was very, very lucky to be able to wake up,” she said. “When I did this, I couldn’t even sit up. I lost most of my fine motor skills. It was such a powerless feeling.”
donate Here or donate £10 (enough for one child to get help) by texting SAFE to 70577
He remembers that moment as a turning point. “You’re 16 years old and suddenly you can’t do everything you want to do,” he said. “But mentally it was a huge struggle because my outlet was disappearing. As someone who could no longer get out of bed without support, I lost that. But it completely shaped my future. This experience made me realize that life is too short and maybe that negative energy could be turned into something good.”
During occupational therapy, he started writing down his goals for the future; One of them was running a marathon. Three years later, in 2021, she ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon for Missing People, raising money for the charity she says “saved my life”. The day after we talked IndependentHe ran his third major world marathon in New York.
“I fell in love with running,” he said. “He gave me the same exit [going] He lacked – that kind of freedom.
.jpeg)
Jade, who now lives in Maidstone, trained as a professional police officer at university and now works for the ambulance service. He has spoken in Parliament and worked with police forces in the UK to develop missing children programmes.
“I’m truly lucky every day, not only to be able to do this, but to now have the opportunity to make change and support future generations when it comes to missing people,” she said.
According to the National Crime Agency, more than 70,000 children were reported missing in nearly 210,000 incidents in 2023-24; This means a child goes missing every two and a half minutes in the UK. Young people aged 12 to 17 account for 61 per cent of all incidents recorded by police, and on average a missing child dies every week.
Jade said she wasn’t surprised by these numbers. “Being young is the hardest time of your life,” he said. “The pandemic and the lack of funding for children’s mental health has made this 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 face the same risk every time.”
Believes in SafeCall, the new service launched by . Independent and Missing People will be “life-changing” for children in crisis.
“Any young people who feel like they want to disappear, please know that there is support out there for you,” he said. “Just because you feel this way now doesn’t mean you’ll feel this way forever. Things can change, and you have that power. And who knows, in six months you might be where I am, telling your story of hope and helping others who haven’t yet found their way.”
.jpeg)
Please donate now We joined The Independent and Missing People’s SafeCall campaign to help raise £165,000 for a free service to support and protect vulnerable young people.
If you or a loved one is lost, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000 for advice, support and options. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental or visit: misspeople.org.uk/get-help
