A family is reliving its worst nightmare as police revealed they were about to start searching the Norfolk countryside for their missing son.

Father-of-two Terry McSpadden, 24, who lived in Outwell Road, Elm, was last seen in March 2007, after visiting a cashpoint on the way home from a pub.

Yesterday detectives revealed that a major search would be carried out this weekend around the area of his last-known movements.

Officers admit that after almost four years, they now have 'significant concerns' for Mr McSpadden's well-being.

Mr McSpadden's mother Helen Thrower said: 'I am beginning to have to learn to deal with it again, and it's all very raw once more.

'Terry disappeared almost four years ago and it is difficult to remain positive. We can't believe he hasn't made contact with his children whom he loved very much.

'Nobody has ever come forward to help explain what happened, but there are people out there who must surely know something.

'I would appeal for anyone with information about Terry's whereabouts to contact the police.'

Det Chief Insp Neil Luckett, from the joint Norfolk and Suffolk police Major Investigation Team, said his disappearence was totally out of character.

'Terry was well-known in the community and he was very much a local man,' he said.

'Terry did have some problems in his life but these problems weren't sufficient for him to disappear.

'He had a steady job, he had two children here, he was a local boy to Wisbech, that's where his life was and for him to step out of that would be very unusual.

'Families in these kinds of cases fear the worst but hope for the best. My job is to find out the facts. We can find no trace of Terry anywhere at this time.'

Detectives say no significant information has emerged about Mr McSpadden's whereabouts since he was reported missing by his mother.

Tomorrow a 50-strong team of police and volunteers will begin searching the area between his home on the A1101 Outwell Road, and the 24-hour Tesco on the outskirts of Wisbech, which he visited after a night out in the town's Locomotive Inn.

Det Supt Luckett said one item police were very keen to trace was Mr McSpadden's bicycle, which has not yet been recovered.

'He went everywhere on a black bike,' he said. 'He had a re-sprayed mountain bike that had been repainted with black Hammerite.'

An electronic tag Mr McSpadden was wearing at the time of his disappearence, after a minor brush with the law, has also not been found.

As well as the two missing items, detectives hope the high-profile search may prompt someone to come forward with crucial information which may kick-start the inquiry.

'Some people four years ago may not have wanted to talk to the police,' said Det Chief Insp Luckett.

'But people's lives change, they move on and their allegiances change.

'I would like anyone who has information, however insignificant it may appear to them, about what has happened to Terry to contact me at the Major Investigation Team on 0845 456 4567.'