A CLOSE friend of the mother of missing nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, has told of the massive support for the search in Batley, Shannon's former home.
Geraldine Clifford has known Karen Matthews for more then 10 years, since Karen and her family lived round the corner from her own family on Burnsall Road, Healey.
They became firm friends and Karen even moved into Geraldine's house for a while a
round the time Shannon was born.
So Geraldine has seen Shannon grow up and has been like an auntie to her.
Geraldine said: "She's quiet, playful. She's never wandered, she's a mummy's girl. If she sees someone out playing she'll go out and play - anyone that talks to her and she'll talk back."
So Shannon's disappearance came as a huge shock to Geraldine, 33, who now lives with fiancé Jeremy Johnson, on Nussey Avenue, Birstall.
She said: "I got a call from my mum saying it's on teletext that Shannon's missing. I went to Karen's and the police and all the news crews were already there.
"Karen was devastated. She was trying to keep going and bear up because the other kids were there and she didn't want to upset them but we could see it was hurting."
So Geraldine and Jeremy went out that night searching for Shannon.
She said: "At first I thought she had just gone out roaming, as kids do, or wandered off with a friend and got distracted. I thought she'd have turned up.
"We went round Dewsbury Moor, Westborough, Mirfield. We looked in derelict buildings, barns, anywhere we could see that was open we looked in. We thought she could be hiding."
But as the hours turned into days hundreds of Batley people joined Geraldine and Jeremy on the search.
Geraldine said: "We've been out from 8am until 11pm. Everyone's been helping. In some houses they're working in shifts, with the woman going out in the day and then the guy going out in the evening while she's looking after the kids.
"We've been round Batley, Leeds, Cleckheaton and Huddersfield, as well as Dewsbury - round and round in circles. We've been all over, round the parks and anywhere kiddies go."
Geraldine, who has five children of her own, said she could only imagine what her friend was going through.
She said: "If it was one of my kids I'd be absolutely devastated.
"I had a still born - he would have been four in January - and losing a child is such a hard thing to go through, but I could imagine him growing up and then losing him. I'd die."
