Four weeks after he disappeared, the wife of missing Swanage man Gerry Turner is still searching for him – even though she admits it would be ‘a miracle’ if he was found alive.

Jane Pierette Turner has been joined on her searches by her Dorset Police Family Liaison officer and her son, Charlie, who is 22. “I have a fantastic family liaison officer, he’s there day and night for me if I have any queries,” she said. “Even when he was off duty he knew I wanted to go out looking for Gerry so he helped.”

However, Jane understands Gerry, who has Type 1 diabetes and needs insulin every day, as well as suffering Lewy Body Dementia, is now the subject of a ‘secondary search’. “I’ve been told that if a helicopter has to go up they’ll keep looking out for him from the air and will keep following up information from the public, but apart from that, I’m not sure what they can do,” she says.

Mr Turner, 67, went missing at around 3am on Sunday March 4 from his home in Church Hill.

Police, joined by representatives from HM Coastguard, DorSAR (Dorset Search and Rescue), Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue and Wessex 4x4 have carried out searches across the area.

Locations searched include Townsend Nature Reserve, Holborn Park and area from Anvil Point to Dancing Ledge.

Jane has tried to search these areas too. “There’s no sign of him, no sign of his belongings and when you look at the area, it’s really vast,” she said.

She now believes he has sadly died. “I don’t think he’ll be found alive, not because of the Lewy bodies but his diabetes,” she said. “I’ve known him 18 years but been looking after him for 12 years, making sure he had injections four times a day and just feel he’s not with us anymore.”

She has said that she feels her husband may have died on the Tuesday after he went missing. “I had this feeling of utter peace on that day which was really strange,” she said.

Lewy bodies – the same disease suffered by the actor Robin Williams when he took his own life in 2014 - is frequently described as dementia but, said Jane, it is different as those who suffer it are often acutely aware something is wrong.

“It’s not like someone who becomes forgetful and then goes into their own world,” she said. “I can only describe it as like having a devil on your back. Gerry saw what he called these symbols, and he said they were telling him what to do – one of the things they told him was not to eat. If he did he would say he could see the food coming out of his hands.”

Because of the length of time to find him, she said, she had to 'imagine the worst’ but: “If he was found alive it would be a miracle and fantastic.”

She wants to publicise the situation of people with Lewy Body dementia. “There seems so little awareness of it,” she said.