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27th June 2024
11:09am BST
The mother of Jay Slater has revealed she has started withdrawing money from a fundraiser set up amid the search for her missing son.
For more than a week now, a huge search operation has been underway in the northwest of Tenerife for Jay Slater, a 19-year-old who went missing last Monday, June 17th.
Since his disappearance, more than £36,000 has been donated to a GoFundMe page on his behalf.
His mother Debbie Duncan said on Thursday she had started to withdraw some of the cash to spend on support for the rescuers, food, and accommodation.
She explained the money would also be used to fly out the "loved ones" of the "wonderful people" who had come out to Tenerife to be with her during the search for her son.
She wrote on the page on Thursday: "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."
The fundraiser was set up by Slater's friend Lucy Law, who is believed to be the last person who had contact with the apprentice bricklayer.
Slater had travelled to Tenerife with Law and some friends for the NRG music festival, in the tourist hotspot of Playa de las Americas, on the south of the island.
After leaving the festival at Papagayo nightclub on Sunday (June 16), he got in a car with two men he had met, with the group driving 40 minutes to the northwestern mountain village of Masca in the Rural de Teno National Park.
He was last heard from at around 08:00 BST the following day (June 17) when he phoned his friend Lucy Law, telling her he had missed a bus and had tried to walk the 10-hour journey but was lost.
He said he needed water and only had one percent battery left on his phone.
His phone was then cut off, and his last known location was shown as the national park.
Rescue efforts have centered on the Rural de Teno Park, situated on the other side of Tenerife where Slater and his friends were staying.
The park is mountainous, and remote, and is made up of deep ravines and daunting mountains. Slater’s friends initially tried to search the area on Tuesday, June 18th, with local police and mountain rescue teams then joining the efforts.
Search dogs, drones, and a helicopter have also been used, whilst Slater’s family have flown to the island to help the search.
Speaking on Tuesday, Duncan said: “It's been a week now and it's been awful. I've barely slept and I'm at my wits' end.
“The Spanish police are doing a good job and we are getting updated from the consulate so we just put our faith in them.”
On Sunday, police examined outbuildings at the bottom of a ravine in Rural de Teno, close to where his phone last pinged. Searchers could be seen looking into blue barrels outside one of these buildings, Sky News reports.
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