If you are away from home and you want to let people know you are ok, Runaway Helpline can help.

You might be wondering how they are feeling or think that they might be worrying about you. You might be feeling worried about something that happened before you ran away or scared about what will happen if you go back now. Maybe you just don’t feel ready to go back yet or you want to find out if it’s ok to go home.

Sometimes, the longer you are away from home, the harder it can be to get back in touch. If you don’t have credit or money for a call you could try reverse charge calling the person, by calling 0800 738 3773. You will be connected if the person you are calling is happy to accept the cost of the call. If you don’t want to call and talk, could you send a text or an email?

If you don’t feel ready to make contact yourself, asking for a message to be passed on can be an easier way to start to make contact again. Runaway Helpline can pass a message to family members or carers if they are 18 or over.  Or we can pass a message to your support worker, mental health worker or social worker.

We can’t pass messages about legal things or anything to do with money.  You can tell us what kind of message you want us to send and we can work out what to say together, but we can’t send unkind messages or messages that might upset people.

How it works

We will need your name and your date of birth. This is to make sure we are passing a message for the right person and we will need the name and telephone number of the person we are calling for you, and their relationship to you.

Once we have this information, we  will make the call and ask if they would like to receive a message from you. We will never leave a message on voicemail. If they say yes, we will give them your exact message, and ask if they would like us to pass a message back to you.

You can always call us back to see if there is a message for you. If you would like to hear more about sending a message home, you can call or text Runaway Helpline 24/7 for free on 116 000.