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It has been 23 years since Quentin went missing, 23 years since he walked out of his family home in West Auckland, New Zealand and was not seen again.

For his mother Sarah Godwin, who now lives in Dunsfold, Quentin's disappearance came as a complete shock to her and the whole family.

Quentin, known as Q by family and friends, was 18 coming up to 19-years-old when he left.

His life on the surface sounded idyllic.

Quentin lived in rural New Zealand. His passion was bee-keeping, starting when he was 11-years-old and building up several hives. He found it hugely fascinating and the family used the manuka honey, the bees produced in abundance, in home-cooking.

He spent lots of time with his three sisters, stepbrother and stepsister in the family's huge garden, canoeing in spare time and visiting the estuary down the road.

However on the flip side, the place and time where he was growing up, 90s Auckland, was a challenging environment, fuelled by alcohol and drug taking.

Sarah explained there was peer pressure around, Quentin was caught in the middle, he wanted to fit in with his friends.

At 17, Quentin was diagnosed as being a manic depressive or bi-polar.

However at the time leading up to Quentin's disappearance, Sarah explained he was getting on, studying in 7th form subjects he enjoyed and people liked him.

“I didn’t realise, the family didn’t realise, that he was in a fairly dark place, it didn’t seem like it in day to day life,” Sarah said.

On May 20 1992 he told his younger sister he was going to the village to his after-school job at the supermarket, he walked out of the family home and was never seen again.

At the time Sarah was away visiting her parents in Surrey; her husband found a note the next morning in his bedroom.

“I think the note wasn’t explicit, you could read it as a suicide note or just a deeply unhappy note,” Sarah said. “There was obviously a plea for help, there was a huge amount of confusion and pain.”

Over the next few years, there would be sightings of Quentin, posters put up all over New Zealand, strange phone calls from a woman claiming to be his wife saying they had a baby together, but all these leads came to a dead end.

“It was like every time there was any possibility of any clue we slammed up against a brick wall, a dead end and it’s an incredibly emotional and exhausting experience,” Sarah explained. “You get your hopes up and they are left dangling, you are left dangling, there is nothing you can do.”

In February 2014 there was an inquest in New Zealand which concluded Quentin was dead, even though there was no evidence to prove this.

“I don't accept that as a fact, he is not dead until there is some proof, I just don't want to go there.”

In 1995, after years of searching, Sarah, who was born in Epsom, decided to leave the life she had created in New Zealand and move to Dunsfold to be closer to her family.

However for Sarah coming to England after many years meant she had to build a life for herself. She started a new job and raised her youngest child, but she explained there were periods of darkness in amongst this normal existence.

Initially when Sarah moved, Missing People was still in its infancy and was nothing more than a helpline.

But by 2009 it had moved on.

Sarah joined, becoming a family representative, talking to the press and other families about her own experience.

Over the years Missing People has become a huge part of Sarah’s life. She has worked on their campaigns, including Everything Stops for Tea, appeared on breakfast TV to talk about Missing People and went on stage at the London O2 arena in July 2013 at a Rock Choir gathering. She has recently become a Trustee of Missing People.

(Image: Teri Blythe)

In May 2011, Sarah spoke at a parliamentary inquiry, along with Kate McCann, mother of Madeleine McCann and Nicki Durbin, mother of Luke Durbin. The inquiry looked into support for families of missing people and how it could be improved through legislation.

Sarah initiated a new fundraising campaign ‘Miss for May’ for Missing People, where you choose to give up something and get sponsorship for the month.

“May is a big month, for me because Q went missing in May, but Missing People do a family event in Clapham Common. International Missing Persons Day is on May 25, which is promoted every year and they do the Big Tweet and get as many re-tweets on the day, of appeals for missing children-last year saw 83,000 retweets,” Sarah said.

“This year is also the anniversary of the Child Rescue Alert system which allows police to put out an alert if a vulnerable child goes missing. 288,000 people have already signed up, including all the postmen and women at Royal Mail. If the child goes missing in your area, you receive a message saying please look out for this child.”

Sarah explained the focus of this work is not only to help search for missing people but to prevent it happening in the first place.

She gave her own advice to people who find themselves in a difficult situation, saying: “If you need to get away from your home environment or need your own life, which I recognise people do, it's the not knowing which causes so much pain. You can't bury the person in your mind because you don't know whether they are dead or alive.”

“When someone is missing your feelings can't settle, you can't hold on to anything, you can't rationalise anything and that's what makes it so difficult, so I guess preventative work is as much an issue for me now as my own story.”

Sarah's own story is one that constantly stays inside her, she explained simply because “he is my son and I miss him. If I didn’t love him, I wouldn’t miss him.”

When Sarah was asked the one thing she would say to her son, she said: “Let us know where you are and how you are, just let us know how your life is really and if you didn't want to get in touch, fine, but it would be fantastic to know you are around.”

There is a website on Quentin's disappearance, with updated news and photos of Quentin. Missing People also has a website with advice and information on their campaigns.