The mother of missing British teenager Jay Slater has said she will use donations to fund her stay on Tenerife as the hunt for her son continues into a second week.
Debbie Duncan said the £36,000 (€42,000) raised by more than 3,200 individual donations will be used to support mountain rescue teams, and to cover her own accommodation and food costs during her extended stay on the island.
Ms Duncan flew out to join the search for her son on June 18th, the day after he went missing.
The teenager, from Lancashire in England, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.
The apprentice bricklayer (19) had attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance and was last heard from on June 17th.
The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location, Rural de Teno Park in the north of the island, to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.
Donations flooded in after a fundraiser was set up by Lucy Law, his friend and the last person to speak to him.
The GoFundMe appeal, “Get Jay Slater home”, raised thousands within hours as concern for the teenager grew.
In an update on Thursday, Ms Duncan said: “First, I would like to thank everyone for your support, kind messages, and good wishes.
“It’s difficult to wrap our heads around what is happening right now, but we are not losing hope that we will find Jay and return home together.
“We are currently working with GoFundMe to withdraw part of the funds, which are being safely held.
“I wanted to share that these funds will be used to support the mountain rescue teams who are tirelessly searching for Jay.
“Additionally, since our stay in Tenerife needs to be extended, we will also use the funds to cover accommodation and food expenses.
“I’m surrounded by wonderful people who are by my side, but far from their loved ones, so we’ll also be using part of these funds to fly them to Tenerife so we can support each other during these dark times.
“Thank-you again for all your donations and support, this means the world to us.”
Ms Law said Mr Slater told her in a frantic phone call before he went missing, on June 17th, that he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1 per cent”.
Search teams, co-ordinated by the Spanish police, the Guardia Civil, have since mounted a huge manhunt using helicopters, drones and search dogs to scour mountainous areas of the island, but are yet to find the teenager.
Ms Duncan has described her son’s disappearance and the wait for news as a “living nightmare”.
