Mary Byrne has opened up about her sister’s dementia as the search continues to find the man who saved her from a terrible fate.
The 60-year old singer told how her sister Betty, 71, went missing from their mobile home in Brittas Bay, Wicklow, this week and explained how a kind gentleman brought her home to her Dublin residence.
The former X Factor star admitted that her sister’s illness has been “a very hard time for the family.”
“I’ve only got one sister, we’re very close, I love her to bits.
“My mother had Alzheimer's too, it’s a horrible stressful time for the young girls who are looking after her.
“I’ve lost the person who always rang me and told me she was there for me and loved me.”
Mary made an appeal on RTE Radio 1 yesterday to find the good Samaritan who found her sister this week.
“Betty slept in the bed beside me, there were two beds in our room, I saw her going to sleep that night.
“I fell into a deep sleep, we all did.
“I got up the next morning, about 10.25, my niece was sitting on the sofa, looking after her little toddler and I said, ‘Where’s your mam?’ and she said, ‘She’s in bed’, I said ‘No she’s not’ and that was the first time we knew she was gone.
“It was horrible, we searched the holiday park, we didn’t think she’d be able to get out of because of the code on the gate, my niece rang her and she was in the kitchen in Tallaght.”
She added: “We asked her how she got there, she first of all said a fella pulled up and she knew him, she’s one of these people who wouldn’t get into a stranger’s car.
“For her to get into the car she must have been exhausted, the man said he’d bring her to the police station, she had turned up at the door the next morning at 7.45am.
“She had gone out with no shoes, a damp pair of jeans my niece had washed for her and a blue house coat, like a long dressing gown.
“We assume he stopped at the garage, she said she had a lovely cup of tea going home.”
Mary said she and her nieces want to thank the man for looking after Betty.
“I would love to just say thank you and to bring him for a meal and to just shake his hand.
“There are good people in the world and we forget this sometimes.”
