by Hayley Robinson

It has been two years and two months since Matthew Green went missing from his Sittingbourne home.

Three sightings of him were reported to the charity Missing People, after his parents Pauline and Jim were interviewed by Gloria Hunniford for a programme which aired on ITV in February.

One was in Munich, Germany, another in Milton Keynes and the other in Muswell Hill, London, but none of them amounted to anything.

The self-employed roofer, whose 28th birthday was on February 5, was last seen at the family home in Rock Road at about 8pm on Thursday, April 8, 2010.

He told his parents he was going to stay with a friend for the weekend in Mile End, but he never returned home.

The couple say they cling on to the hope that he is still alive and that one day he will call or walk through the front door.

Mrs Green, 58, said: “We went to Muswell Hill. A man was begging outside Marks & Spencers and there was a moment when I thought it’s him, but as we got nearer we could see it wasn’t.

“We showed him a poster of Matthew. He said he’d been on the streets four years and if Matthew had been there he would have known him.

“I’ve got to think he’s still alive and until someone tells me differently I’ve got to believe it.

“It’s the hope that keeps us going.”

Among their efforts to find their son, Mr and Mrs Green have created a Facebook group, put posters up in various locations across the UK and in May last year, appeared on the BBC programme Missing 2011.

A missing persons appeal about Matthew also featured in the Big Issue, on February 6 and February 27.

His father Jim, 59, a firefighter at Sittingbourne fire station, even agreed to a two-page article in the Fire Brigades’ Union’s magazine towards the end of last year but, despite all their efforts, they are still no closer to knowing his whereabouts.

Unwrapped Christmas, birthday and Easter presents remain unopened in his bedroom to give to him when he returns.

Pauline added: “There’s no closure. In some ways I would rather know one way or the other.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Missing People charity on 0500 700 700.