Mother whose son disappeared nearly 20 years ago on army expedition sets off on trek in his memory
The mother of a cadet soldier from Shrewsbury who disappeared during a training expedition in France almost 20 years ago has set herself a personal challenge in his memory.
Sally Perrin never gave up looking for her son Blake Hartley and travelled to Chamonix in the French Alps, where he was last seen, eight times before his remains were found.
Sally, now 68, has challenged herself to walk the south route of the Shropshire way - 115 miles of it - getting dropped off in the mornings at the point she reached the day before..
She's doing it for charity Missing People in memory of Blake Hartley who vanished after a night out with fellow army cadets in Chamonix in 2004.
It was the Nicola Bulley case that sparked the idea for Sally's walk.
"There was just so much publicity, and I knew exactly what those guys were going through, because we've been through it.
"It's been 19 years now since Blake disappeared. And I love walking the Shropshire Hills. So I thought let's put all that together and raise some money for Missing People."
What happened to Blake Hartley?
Blake disappeared after a night out in Chamonix, in the French Alps, with fellow army cadets in 2004, the day after his 25th birthday.
The most common theory at the time was that he'd fallen into the River Arve which runs through the town but the French police and divers drew a blank despite spending hundreds of hours searching.
Eventually, some three years after he first disappeared and after the family had regularly visited the Alps to hunt for answers and increase publicity about the case, a fisherman found his remains in the river 60 miles downstream.
Today, Sally who had held onto every shred of hope that her son would be found alive, describes the day it was confirmed the remains were Blake's.
"That's when it really hit me when I was told that the DNA results were Blake's. It was a horrendous moment. My oldest daughter said to me: 'Well, I guess it just shows how much hope you were hanging on to until that point'.
In 2006, ITV Central travelled to France with Sally and her family on one of their last trips to Chamonix as they looked for their son and brother.
Asked by reporter Lucy Kapasi, what she could remember from that time, Sally said: ""You just always hope you are going to find something and and I just felt so determined I wasn't going to give up.
"And I knew he wouldn't have given up on me. So I just had to keep moving forward. And however crazy, whatever thing I tried, you've just got to try everything because, you know, he's my boy.
"Inside you are just broken. You never lose that. There's not a day goes by when I don't remember Blake. And you know at family occasions it's extra sad because he's not there but at least we know what happened. For people who never know, I don't know how they live with that."
Asked if she feels Blake's presence with her on the Shropshire Hills Sally said: "Oh, absolutely. Especially when I'm struggling to get up a hill and I've got Blake in my head going: 'Just take it one step at a time, Mum. That's all you need to do'. So, yes I'm sure he's with me because it's the sort of place he would just love."
Sally's trek is all the more impressive considering she almost died during Covid spending seven weeks at the Royal Shrewsbury hospital, four of them in a medically induced coma.
"I love a challenge. And my theory is the more exercise you have, hopefully the better you'll get. So even though it's hard work going up those hills and I do a lot of huffing and puffing, I think, you know, this is going to help."
Sally's hoping to complete her walk in a couple of weeks going out most days and as news travels of what she's doing, she's enioying sharing her memories of her boy Blake, a young man with the biggest grin who like her felt most at home outdoors.
How common is it for someone to go missing?
Someone is reported missing in the UK every 90 seconds.
Many more disappearances go unreported.
170,000 people are reported mising very year.
Credit: Missing People
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