“She’s the mum you would want to be”.

The next-door neighbour of Nicola Bulley has told Sky News how “it could have been any one of us” that disappeared 18 days ago in the Lancashire village of St Michael’s on Wyre.

Charlotte Drake, who has lived next door to Nicola and her family for five years, spoke of the “hell” she’s faced since her friend went missing and the questions children in the street are now asking about the disappearance of the 45-year-old mum of two.

“It’s been hell for us, for everybody. She’s touched so many, her face is everywhere and we’re all just asking, ‘where is she?'”

More on Nicola Bulley:
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Ms Drake, who saw Nicola most mornings, spoke of the “surreal” feeling since Nicola went missing, saying: “You’re just expecting to see her in the mornings.

“It just almost feels at the moment like time is stood still, until we know anything and find anything.

“She’s the mum you would want to be, she’d do everything for those girls and nothing is ever too much trouble.

“She’s one of us and that’s why it’s hit so many of us around here, all the mums.

“We’ve all done this walk and it feels like it could have been any one of us.”

‘Hope and positivity’

Like so many people who know Nicola Bulley, her neighbour Charlotte tied a yellow ribbon to bridge over the River Wyre, just downstream from where Nicola went missing and where police believe she accidentally slipped in.

With Nicola’s two daughters off school due to half-term, Ms Drake spoke of the difficulty the family are facing without a mum at home.

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“I think there’s no option about keeping hope alive when there’s children involved,” she said.

“You cannot have anything but hope and positivity, it’s been so difficult, but you have to trust that we’re going to find something because if we haven’t got that, what have we got?”

She added: “We can’t give up hope because she would never give up, she’d be doing exactly the same as any one of our neighbours.

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Lancashire Police have confirmed they are continuing their search of the River Wyre, focusing downstream, but as of yet there is no sign of Nicola Bulley 18 days on from when she disappeared.

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