Sinead Browne was only 12-years-old when she started running away.
She went into care when she was 2-years-old, growing up in a mix of care homes and foster placements in London. She said: “I absconded from care many times, simply because I didn’t feel safe.
“There was risk of sexual abuse from other young people. Risk of abuse – not just sexual, but exploitation – from the carers. I also ran away because I didn’t feel heard or didn’t feel reflected in the household, so cultural differences, cultural clashes.
“A lot of the time I also felt like I was just being used as a pay cheque. Foster carers often don’t actually care about you. There are some amazing ones but for the most part you’re a pay cheque.
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Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
“So I would run away and then have to be brought back by a social worker or by the police.”
Most of the time Sinead would go to stay with a friend when she absconded from care. But once when she was living in a hostel when she was 16-years-old, she was taken by a neighbour to a drug den where she spent two days terrified to leave.
“I couldn’t call a social worker because I would have got in trouble, they would stop your pocket money that you got,” she said. “I didn’t have family, I didn’t have anyone who I could call. My friend said just wait it out until you can get taken home.
“That was the only time I ran away when I was really at risk. Because anyone could have burst into the house like a fellow gang, drug users coming with guns and knives.”
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Sinead urged people to get behind the Mirror’s Christmas Appeal for the charity Missing People – the only UK charity supporting those affected by a disappearance. Someone is reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK.
Recent figures show a 9% rise in the number of children reported missing each year, up from 69,050 in 2021-22 to 75,422 in 2022-23. There has also been an increase in the total going missing, from 166,463 to 171,192.
She said understanding why young people are running away is crucial. “For me, running away from a foster placement because of cultural differences. Have that discussion, don’t force me to stay there. Have the framework for young people to feel safe to talk about it. I didn’t.”
The 34-year-old went on to become a solicitor and then set up Compliments of The House, a community-led food distribution charity that she founded after the pandemic.