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3rd May 2023
12:45pm BST
Madeleine McCann's parents have shared a poem to mark 16 years since their daughter disappeared while on a family holiday in Portugal.
It also comes a week before Madeleine's birthday. She turns 20 next Friday.
According to reports, Kate and Gerry McCann said they still find it "hard to find the words" to convey their heartache and "still very much miss" Madeleine.
Madeleine, then aged three, went missing from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve a week before her fourth birthday, on 3 May 2007.
Her parents said on Wednesday that they still anxiously await a "breakthrough" in the case.
As a tribute to their daughter, Kate and Gerry, shared a poem by Clare Pollard.
The McCanns said Pollard's poem, The Contradiction, "resonates strongly with us" as it conveys the sheer pain of losing loved ones, MailOnline reported.
The poem reads: "The absence contradicts itself: the missing conjures what we miss. You are not here, I'm not myself, but still talk to you like this.
"You're in the crowd, the news, the glimpse - I make you there when you're not there. 'I trace your steps, I map your face, I say your name, see you in air.
"You're all I know and so unknown. I cannot hold you yet I do: please let me hold you in my head and where are you now, hold me too.
"How can you be so near and far? You are not here. But here you are."
The McCanns acknowledged that the police investigation into Madeleine's disappearance continues and said they "await a breakthrough".
"Thank you to everyone for your support - it really helps," they wrote.
The post came two weeks after German prosecutors said they are dropping sex offence charges against Christian Brueckner, a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, as they did not have jurisdiction over him.
Madeleine's siblings, twins Sean and Amelie McCann, were in the same room when she vanished.
Kate and Gerry, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were having dinner with friends at a tapas restaurant just 55 metres away.
When Kate checked the room at 10pm she noticed her daughter was missing.
Police were last month given hundreds of thousands of pounds in a new funding effort to help solve Madeleine's disappearance.
The Mail noted that £13 million has been spent on the case since 2011.
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