‘I lived in a toxic household – I went missing 27 times in a month and was barely eating’
A.As a teenager, Chereece Bateson disappeared so often that even the police had trouble keeping track.
He disappeared 27 times in just one month. He was living in care, “barely eating,” subsisting on food banks and feeling safer on the streets than in places where he was supposed to be sheltered.
Now 24, he looks back on that period as a time when he had “no home, no security, no control” and almost no one to turn to.
Today the young woman from Manchester is helping to create a service she believes could change everything for her. He is one of the young consultants behind SafeCall, a new 24-hour lifeline. Independent and the charity Missing People provides support to 70,000 children reported missing each year.
The aim of this publication is to raise £165,000 to fund SafeCall so that the 70,000 children reported missing each year can find support, safety and connection no matter what. The charity now reaches a quarter of these children, and with your support SafeCall will reach many more, offering a lifeline to young people in crisis.
donate Here or text SAFE to 70577 to donate £10 to Missing People, enough for one child to get help.
“I wish that support had been there when I was in my situation,” Chereece said Independent. “I would realize I wasn’t on my own. There would be someone listening, defending me. It would give me the opportunity to escape, what I desperately needed.”
He first went missing several times when he was much younger, but it was when he entered the care system as a teenager that things escalated seriously.
He said he disappeared 27 times in one month when he was 15, then was placed in a secure unit the following year to prevent his disappearance.
“I grew up in a toxic home,” he said. “My escape is music and walking. Sometimes being by myself felt safer than being with the people I was with.”
“But the attention makes it worse because you don’t know who you are with. Isolation and control creates its own trauma… Where I was and the environment I was in was suffocating. I was a kid living in a workplace with no home, no family, no friends. I had no control over my life.”
“The way to regain control was to escape. I felt safer being on the streets than in nursing homes where there were strangers and places I didn’t know anyway.”
He said that the measures taken to prevent him from getting lost again eliminated his desire to get lost even more and pushed him into more risky situations.
But when she was 16, she said, she met a social worker who really cared about her and helped her buy her own home the following year.
The woman, who lives alone at home, said she now has very little money, around £50 a week to get by, and has had to rely on food banks for her 17 and 18-year-olds.
But the property was located in an area where she wanted to be and required semi-independent living, and Chereece rarely got lost after moving.
“HE [the social worker] “It completely changed my life,” he said, “and my behavior changed because I had someone working with me.”
Chereece compared the impact this social worker had on her life to that of Missing People.
“The difference a social worker who listens makes,” she said. “He really stayed behind the scenes, making sure he was patient, that he really cared, and that he wasn’t going to leave. There was equal levels of respect and equal levels of trust.”
Chereece only became familiar with Missing People after a period when she was in danger of disappearing, and started working as a youth counselor for the charity in March.
“This gives me the ability to apply my experiences and hopefully help someone else who is going through this,” she said.
She provided advice on SafeCall, attended focus groups and gave her views and opinions to ensure the service was designed to be safe and relatable for the young people it aims to support.
“I think it’s not just helping families and providing that support; it can literally change lives,” he said.
“Speaking from the perspective of a young person who has experienced these things, I think it will completely change my life.”
Chereece said working with Missing People showed her first-hand what a “tremendous” impact their services make on young people at risk of missing out.
“Working with them and turning my negative experience into a positive and helping me heal even changed my life,” she said.
“It’s huge to have my voice heard, I know, to speak on behalf of other young people, to have our voices heard is huge.
“Fortunately, Missing People is there to support people’s voices being heard, offering lifelong support to those who have unfortunately lost family and friends, or themselves.”
Please donate now to the SafeCall campaign launched by The Independent and the charity Missing People to help raise £165,000 to create a free service to help find vulnerable children new, safe futures.
If you or a loved one is lost, text Missing People or call 116 000 for advice, support and options. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental. Or visit: misspeople.org.uk/get-help
