It is almost a year since 15-year-old Daniel Nolan disappeared without trace. His mother, Pauline, tells of the anguish and hope the family has to live with every day...

PAULINE Nolan admits that it has been the hardest year of her life and that she and her family are now facing a difficult time as Christmas approaches.

But like the candle that has burned in the front room of her Hamble home for nearly a year since her 15-year-old son Dan disappeared, she still holds on to a steadfast faith that the King Edward VI schoolboy is alive and will eventually be found.

There will be no Christmas cards from the Nolan family this year but 43-year-old Pauline says: "As a family we wish everyone a merry Christmas. We just keep thinking our brighter day will dawn.

"Every day we go through is a day closer to the conclusion. We haven't had any bad news and we have to hang on to the hope that we will get some good news.

"Dan is out there somewhere. Sooner or later if we keep chipping away something will break - at present we are no closer to finding him, but we just haven't had the vital breakthrough."

It is an inner belief which has sustained Pauline, her 42-year-old husband, Greg, and their children Clare, 14, Liam, 12, Patrick, 10, and seven-year-old Connor since the bright and personable Daniel disappeared during a late night fishing expedition on the bitterly cold first night of the year.

Dan had been fishing from the main pontoon at Hamble foreshore with friends when shortly after 11.30pm he decided to nip up to the local Alldays store to get some chocolate.

The shop was closed and as he made his way back down to the pontoon he met his friends who said it was so cold they were calling it a day. Dan said he would get his fishing tackle from the pontoon and see them later - but that was the last time he was seen.

When Dan did not return to his Hamble Lane home at the expected time of about 2.30am his anxious mum raised the alarm, visited the pontoon with members of her family and called the police.

It was the start of one of the biggest and most extensive hunts that Hamble has ever seen with hundreds of volunteers rallying to the cause.

It also triggered the launch of a remarkable campaign by the Nolan family which has seen Dan's face plastered nationwide and abroad in a desperate hunt for information.

To this day, Mrs Nolan says she still walks the family's dog, Barney, along the beach at Hamble looking for her missing son but adds: "It's crazy - I know I'm not going to find anything because Greg and I are convinced that he didn't go into the water.

"Something instinctively told us that did not ring true. I felt that there was an unsavoury character in the area that night and Dan was vulnerable.

"He was out late at night and on his own. I have this theory that, knowing Dan, if he was assaulted that night he would find it extremely hard to come to terms with and would need time to do so.

"He is a very deep, closed-book type of lad and would be absolutely distraught if anything like that had happened to him.

"He would feel he had let us down - but we can sort anything out, there would be no problem."

Despite living with their own pain, Pauline says the family is also thinking of Dan's friends and their hearts will also go out to the Hamble community which has provided such a tower of strength.

"I'm not asking people to feel sorry for us but something like this just changes your perspective on life. Our Christmas message would be for people to enjoy and treasure their loved ones for every minute because you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

"Dan is one of many people who are missing and we are just one of many families who are in this suspension of just not knowing.

"We have met so many lovely people and learned a lot about human nature and how many marvellous people there are in the world."

While thousands of families enjoy the frantic festive season, the Nolans intend to have a quiet Christmas at home - just in case they get that vital phone call or knock at the door.

The anniversary of Dan's disappearance will be marked with a service in Hamble's St. Andrew's Church.

But Pauline said: "It won't be a memorial service - it will be a service of inspiration and thanks and hope."