"Bring Timmy Home" wife 'scales down' missing sailor campaign

The wife of the missing Hampshire sailor Timmy MacColl has decided to close down the Facebook group she set up to help find him after he went missing while on shore leave in Dubai last year.

Rachael MacColl launched a wide scale international campaign to find her husband, launching a website 'Bring Timmy Home' and harnessing social media including a Facebook site, Twitter account and hashtag for twitter users to join her in her search and spread the word and circulate Timmy's photograph in case they or anyone they knew recognised him. She captured national attention in her search and garnered much support from the public. The Facebook page alone gathered almost 100,000 followers.

ITV News Meridian have followed Rachael MacColl's search for Timmy, and in January 2013 she gave us an exclusive interview to about how her family were dealing with her husband's disappearance, and the progress of the campaign.

In a statement on the official 'Bring Timmy Home' website which will remain live, Rachael MacColl thanked her supporters, and said she was now satisfied that the authorities both in the UK and Dubai are doing all they can to find her husband. She said while it was a hard decision she had to close down the Facebook group because it was a constant reminder to her and her children of their loss, which was having an 'adverse effect' on their lives.

Timmy MacColl was serving with the Royal Navy ship HMS Westminster when he disappeared while on shore leave in Dubai in late May 2012. Within months of his disappearance his wife gave birth to the couple's third child.

The search to 'Bring Timmy Home' continues.