Missing Conwy fishermen: Families 'not giving up' on loved ones
- Published
A search for missing fishermen Alan Minard, Ross Ballantine and Carl McGrath was called off after two days
Families of three fishermen who went missing more than three weeks ago say a collective refusal to give up on their loved ones has brought them together.
Alan Minard, Ross Ballantine and skipper Carl McGrath were aboard the Nicola Faith when it went missing off the coast of north Wales on 27 January.
A major search operation was was called off after two days.
But the families told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast their continuing search is "keeping us going".
"We are all trying to stay as positive as we possibly can," Jake Cox, whose partner Lauren Hynes is the sister of Mr McGrath, told the programme.
"We are trying to take each day as we can and try to be as optimistic as we can."
Carl McGrath's sister Lauren, pictured with her fiancé Jake Cox, set up the crowdfunding page for Llandudno RNLI
When the search was called off, Mr Cox said "it hit home that they could potentially not be coming back".
"But we didn't give up hope. We still went out, we still went out and looked," he said.
"Then we had to start carrying on our day-to-day lives. I started going back to work, it was a bit of normality.
"But we still look, we still have information coming to us. We have a search party group on WhatsApp, we do keep in contact with Ross's family, with Alan's family.
"It's keeping us going as well because we are all there for each other."
Mr Cox said the families had been heartened by how much money has been donated after Ms Hynes set up a crowdfunding appeal for Llandudno RNLI.
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It has raised more than £10,000 after the station's volunteers were involved in the search, which covered hundreds of square miles of sea.
The operation involved seven RNLI lifeboat crews, three coastguard search teams, a coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Caernarfon and a fixed-wing coastguard aircraft.
"We are so grateful and thankful for how much people have taken an interest in donating as much money as they can," Mr Cox added.
"The community has been absolutely amazing with us."
A person has also set up a crowdfunding appeal for the families of the fishermen, which Mr Cox described as "really, really amazing".
Skipper Carl McGrath is "really, really respected" in Llandudno and Conwy, Mr Cox says
Paying tribute to Mr McGrath, Mr Cox said Mr McGrath was the type of person who "gave everyone a chance".
"He really did love his job and he was really, really respected - he is respected around the Llandudno area and around the Conwy area."