I walked out as a teenager and it caused my parents huge worry...luckily I came to my senses within days

Amanda Redman has been patron of the Missing People charity for more than 25 years but she first experienced what it means to disappear from home decades earlier, thankfully only briefly.

- SIOBHAN MCNALLY

The New Tricks star reveals that she once walked out on her parents as a teenager, leaving them in a state of panic for days, until common sense kicked in and she returned home.

"I caused my parents huge worry but, I luckily, I came to my senses within a couple of days and went home," the 67-year-old actress recalls of that worrying moment from her childhood, in Brighton, East Sussex.

The personal experience lends an added depth to her role with Missing People, which the Mirror is raising funds for in our Christmas appeal.

Amanda first came into contact with the organisation when she appeared in the gritty BBC drama Beck, which was set in Kings Cross among prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers and runaways, before the area's £3billion regeneration.

"I was first invited by Missing People to become a patron in 1996 because I was in Beck, playing a private detective looking for missing persons," she says. "During my research for Beck, I spent a few days in the offices of Missing People and that really opened my eyes."

Sadly, the risks for vulnerable children are still prevalent today.