Missing doctor's wife makes appeal

Eirwen Stevens says she is finding it hard to cope

The wife of a children's consultant who has been missing for nearly two weeks has made an emotional appeal for him to come home.

Dr Richard Stevens has not been seen since he arrived for work at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, in Salford, on Monday 21 July.

A major police search of the hospital and train stations has so far failed to find him.

Eirwen Stevens told BBC North West Tonight she would give her husband "an almighty big kiss" if he came home.

She added she feared he had suffered a breakdown and could have gone to Whitby, North Yorkshire, where he spent a lot of time as a child.

Dr Stevens has not been seen since arriving for work

She said: "I just think that he got into work on Monday morning and something's triggered him to say 'Oh my gosh, it's Monday morning and I just can't do this anymore'.

"I don't think he's planned it at all. We've recently had a lovely weekend away in Whitby and that's where he used to go as a child.

"My sister, my brother-in-law, a friend and my nephew are now scouring Whitby, just in case he's had some kind of breakdown and he's looking back to his childhood."

She added: "If he walked through the front door now I would throw my hands around him and give him one almighty kiss.

"I think after a few minutes, yes, I would be angry with him - wouldn't anybody be angry? - but my initial thing would be to just throw my hands around him and say, thank God you're safe."

Helen, Jonathan and Rebecca want their father to get in touch

Mrs Stevens, who lives in Sale, Greater Manchester, said she had not been coping well with her husband's disappearance.

She said: "I go to bed at night and think 'Well, that's another day gone'.

"I don't manage to get much sleep but wake up in the morning and think, 'Well here I am again no further forward than I was when I went to bed'.

"The first thing I do in the morning is walk down the garden to see if, by any chance, he has come home in the night and he's in the greenhouse."

Mrs Stevens' appeal came as Greater Manchester Police revealed a possible sighting of her husband boarding a train to London had been discounted.

The last sighting of the 54-year-old was when he was caught on CCTV cameras arriving at the hospital on 21 July.

The consultant haematologist left his Audi car in the car park and his jacket and briefcase in his office before going missing.