A contestant on SAS: Who Dares Wins hopes the show can help find his kid brother.
James Stammers has never lost hope that sibling Anthony will turn up alive after vanishing 10 years ago. And on Monday he will appeal on TV for information on the case which sparked a huge search.
Anthony, who suffered from depression, left home in Colchester, Essex, on May 27, 2012, saying he was off to London. He had been due to give a reading at the funeral of his grandfather the next day.
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An hour after he left, Anthony, 27, texted mum Julie, asking her to get his trousers ready for the funeral.
Police found his bank card was used to withdraw cash from a machine near home but the trail went cold despite there being 30 officers on the case.
James, 40, who also has sister Cathy, 42, decided to go on the gruelling show partly to generate publicity for his brother.
He said: “As the years have gone by, it’s very difficult to know what to do to create any kind of momentum when it comes to a missing person.
“I just wanted to do anything I could to bring attention not just to him, but other people who have missing loved ones.”
James, who owns a gym in Bristol, describes Anthony as a “creative soul” and a “very good person”.
He added: “He’s a one-off, an original. He was almost uniquely cool because he totally went against the norm and did his own thing.”
James and 19 other recruits will take on physical challenges set by ex-special forces soldiers in the Jordanian desert.
To train, he bought a sauna suit and spent months running and doing workouts.
He added: “The show doesn’t remotely give you any real insight into the emotional difficulties, and how draining every last element of it is.
“It’s this perpetual state of feeling on edge, which you can’t gauge by watching.”
Despite the ordeal, James says it was a positive experience he would do again in a heartbeat. And he also remains positive that, one day, his brother will return.
James says: “I will always believe that Anthony’s out there. The most overwhelming desire is just to know he’s healthy and happy.
“And also for him to know that he’s loved so much by all of us, and he’s really missed. We’d give anything just to know that he’s OK.”
SAS: Who Dares Wins is on Channel 4 at 9pm tomorrow night
