A GLASGOW woman’s desire to help others has resulted in the creation of a social media movement which is helping to find missing people in Scotland.

Angie Sivagnanasundaram is the founder of the Facebook page Missing People Scotland which actively helps families find their loved ones who are missing.

The mum-of-three set up the Missing People Scotland in 2011 after the story of missing woman Susan Marshall struck a chord with her, and since its inception the page now has more than 60,000 followers and a reach which extends around the world.

Read: Glasgow's missing people: Have you seen them?

Angie said: “All my life I have wanted to do something to help people. I just never knew what it was. I kept trying to do stuff and it just never worked out.

“This one kind of happened by accident. It has given me a purpose that I probably craved for my whole life.”

The 47-year-old set up the page to help the family of missing Cardonald woman Susan Marshall.

The vulnerable 55-year-old had been missing for 43 days before her body was eventually pulled from the River Clyde in 2011.

Angie said: “It was just the thought of somebody that wasn’t fully aware of what was happening being missing and how scared she must have been – and that is what started this.”

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John Murphy

Since then the page has been at the forefront of high profile missing person cases including Paige Doherty, Scott Diver and John Murphy.

And although those cases did not have a positive outcome, the page is re-uniting families from across the world who thought they would never see each other again.

“I don’t care what way people are missing from people’s lives if somebody needs to find them then we should help them,” explained Angie.

She continued: “Even though we are based in Scotland we know if we share a post, someone somewhere else in the world will share that.

“So you can reach not just Scotland or even the UK but everywhere now. We have therefore had lovely stories of reconnecting families from around the world.”

But for those families who don’t have a happy ending, the page equally exists to give lasting support.

Angie said: “We are usually first to find out because the family will approach us before the newspapers.

“We have to prepare ourselves and we get sad for a few minutes.

“But then we say what are we going to do on the page and we take a step back from how we feel because we need to word it in a way that is respectful for the family.

“The support is amazing, and when these things do happen everyone rallies round and it is like a big internet hug. I think the support it generates probably helps the families a lot.”

The success of the page could not be possible without the support of Angie’s admin including Glaswegian Joan Burns, who now resides in Fife.

There are around 13 admin who support families in their patch and deal with queries that come into the page – and their work is all voluntary.

Joan, who has been an admin for two years, said: “I did it as a hobby years ago when I did my family tree so this is right up my street.

“I love being involved in Missing People Scotland. We get so many good outcomes but obviously there are the downside ones too.”

The admin staff do notice more activity around the festive period because at this time of year, people start to think more.

Angie said: “They are going to miss family over Christmas that is when people get thinking and want to contact us.

“When someone is missing and they are out in that weather we see a spike also.”

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Angie (above)  dreams of making Missing People Scotland into a charity to support families across the country looking to find their loved ones.

She hopes to get some guidance on the group’s next steps when she meets with the UK Missing People charity.

She said: “I feel my job is with missing people.

“I have been in touch with the Missing People charity for the UK, hopefully we can get into talks and they can help us take the page forward in a more professional manner.”

She added: “We are a bunch of wee women in Scotland and we never knew how big this was going to be – we just ran a group.

“We could really do something with this and we are just looking for that way forward now.”

Visit the page here https://www.facebook.com/groups/Missingpeoplescotland/

Read:Glasgow's missing people: Have you seen them?