The mother of missing Fife airman Corrie McKeague has spoken of her heartache at marking her son’s birthday without him.
Nicola Urquhart spent Corrie’s 24th birthday with family members, just days ahead of the first anniversary of his disappearance.
Having marked his birthday this month, Ms Urquhart said that her family was going through a rollercoaster of emotions ahead of Sunday’s anniversary of Corrie going missing.
“We have our tough days but this month is going to be the toughest yet,” she said.
“It has been a year and we know nothing more than we knew a week after we first got that call saying he was missing.
“As a mother and as a family this is so hard.”
Corrie, from Dunfermline, vanished during a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds on September 24.
It is thought the gunner had been trying to walk back to his base at RAF Honington, almost 10 miles away, when he disappeared.
He was caught on CCTV in the early hours of the morning walking into a horseshoe-shaped loading area but was not seen coming back out.
A 20-week search of a local landfill site has been undertaken as part of the effort to find Corrie, amid suggestions that he may have fallen asleep in a bin.
While this proved unsuccessful after concluding in July, Suffolk Constabulary have since suggested that it is most likely that his remains are located somewhere within the site.
Since his disappearance, Corrie’s partner April Oliver has given birth to the couple’s baby daughter, having revealed her pregnancy after he went missing.
Joining his mother in paying tribute to the airman, Corrie’s gran Pat Spencer said in an online post: “You are in my thoughts every day.
“I love and miss you.”
