HUNDREDS of people will disappear from homes across the country today. They will leave for a number of reasons; troubles at work, abuse, illness, money worries or family arguments. There again there may be no reason for them leaving at all, other than wanting to up sticks and go.

For almost every one of those who vanish there will be family left bewildered and helpless, mystified or with a sense of guilt.

According to the National Missing Person's Helpline (NMPH), 250,000 people disappear each year in this country, 100,000 of those are children.

The charity, founded in 1992 by sisters Janet Newman and Mary Aspey, has expanded due to demands on its services.

Once it was run from a room in Janet's house. Now the organisation is based in a 2,000sq ft office in London, where 90 full and part-time staff offer advice to missing people and those left behind.

Every year NMPH receives 100,000 calls from families seeking lost relatives or from missing people wanting to contact home. Its staff resolve 70 per cent of cases they deal with.

Claire Ainsley, of the NMPH, says relatives often fear their missing dads, mums, husbands, wives and children are dead, but the majority come to no harm. The greatest dread comes when there is no apparent reason for a person to disappear. "Some disappearances seem so unusual, which can leave the families feeling helpless because they don't know where the person is or how they are," says Claire. "There are a lot of people who go off seemingly without any reason at all and their relatives presume something terrible has happened. But only eight per cent of people who go missing are found dead. Families won't ever give up hope, even if in themselves they think they are not going to see the person again."

Girls under 18 are more likely to go missing than boys, but men in their late 20s and early 30s are the biggest group of adult runaways.

Claire says most feel unsure about contacting home and the charity can help them through a confidential 24-hour Message Home Helpline. But she adds: "It should not be forgotten that people over 18 are at liberty to choose to go away and break off contact."

Like most charities, funding is a constant worry and the main threat to NMPH's future is that it has become a victim of its own success.

"This is a service which if lost would be hugely missed by families and police so we are reliant on donations to keep the service going," Claire says. "We are constantly trying to meet the demands on us."

The National Missing Persons Helpline can be contacted free on 0500 700 700. Its free Message Home Helpline can be contacted on 0800 700 740.

Anyone wishing to donate to the charity's funds can call 0208-392 4545.