My experience: I’m running for my brother

One woman’s brother was kidnapped in Latin-America a few years ago and every day she lives with the fact that he has never been found. She now lives in the UK with her family. Here, she shares her story. 

My brother was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now not only do we have to live with the consequences of his kidnapping, but worst of all we have no closure and I often even struggle to find the language to deal with it.

You can’t have conversations about it, not only for fear of repercussions, but also because people just don’t understand. Everybody looks at you as though you’re guilty of something and it is somehow your fault that this has happened to your family.

I grew up in with my brother and the rest of the family in a very nice village. We all worked hard, and we had a very happy life. But, living in a country rife with corruption we were always careful not to be caught up in anything illegal; we were always worried but made sure that we would avoid the problems. We set limits so as not to be a target, but still we were never prepared for a kidnapping in our family.

We tried to negotiate for my brother and pay the ransom, but you can’t negotiate with people who don’t have principles and respect their part of the deal. Now we live with one of the hardest things – not knowing his fate.

My brother was one of the most charismatic people. I remember all our happy times going to school and parties, doing all sort of sport activities and competing against each other. His sense of humour is the thing that I really miss. We are a very close family, and it has been challenging to look at an empty place in our hearts and our lives. It is for him that I was motivated to run the Bournemouth Half Marathon for Hostage International.

I hope that the funds for Hostage International will help them to continue doing the valuable work that nobody else does, supporting everyone affected by kidnapping. The outcome of kidnapping for our family could come to a ‘close’ if my brother returns or we find out his fate. However, sometimes families in our situation will live with the uncertainty of what happened to their loved ones and time does not heal, time helps you learn new ways to live. Hostage International continues to support us as we find these new ways to survive.

On Sunday 10 October she ran the Bournemouth Half Marathon 2021 to raise money for Hostage International. 

October 2021