East Midlands

These are questions the villagers at Rothley have been asking ever since Madeleine McCann disappeared in Portugal in May 2007.

Instantly her home village and the people who live here became part of a story eagerly watched around the world.

The publican at the Royal Oak soon found herself at the centre of a deluge of requests for interviews

She told us, "It was an extremely difficult time.

"The phone did not stop ringing from six in the morning until last thing at night.

"People thought I might have information and, of course, I did not."

Val was thrust into the role of spokesperson for the village, organising vigils at Cross Green, and helping to co-ordinate local efforts to raise money for the Find Madeleine Trust Fund.

Stressed out

But the stress of running the pub and dealing with both visitors and the media took its toll. Val has left the pub.

She told Marie, "I didn't leave because Madeleine had gone missing. But life had become very, very stressful, and I felt my health problems would only get worse if I stayed.

"I felt very selfish and I still feel selfish because somehow I feel I left in the middle of something that's still not finished."

Status changed

Then the story changed. In Portugal Gerry and Kate McCann were declared 'arguido's', official suspects in their daughter's disappearance.

When the family returned home the media came with them and this time they were not so welcome.

Businesses were determined to stay loyal to the McCanns but many felt the emphasis was moving away from the hunt for Madeleine.

Media intrusive

Sue and Steve Miller run the newsagents facing onto the village green.

"It has affected us quite badly because it is very intrusive with all media here," Sue told us.

"Some of our customers are feeling quite intimidated, we had to clear the media away from the front of the shop.

Steve agreed that the press have outstayed their welcome. "We and the community feel what's best for Gerry and Kate is to give them some space."

The continuing headlines have made it very difficult for people in Rothley to get any sense of perspective or to imagine that one-day the world's attention will move elsewhere.

Changed perspectives

You do not have to travel far in the East Midlands to find communities who have lived through "the big story" and come out the other side.

Only a few miles down the road from Rothley another Leicestershire village has had first hand experience of what it is like to make global news.

In 2000 it emerged that five young people with links to Queniborough had died from the human form of mad cow disease – CJD.

The fear was that “the Queniborough cluster” might signal a national epidemic

Seven years on there have been no more cases of CJD. The village butcher is thriving.

Was the story blown out of proportion?

Air Crash

On the night of 8 January 1989 British Midland flight 092 from Belfast crashed onto the M1 near Kegworth in Leicestershire.

The crash changed Kegworth forever.

It stopped being a village, and became an event – joining Lockerbie, Dunblane, Soham, Kegworth on a roll call of places the world will always link with disaster.

In 1991 Nurse Beverly Allitt was working on the children's ward of Grantham and Kesteven hospital.

For reasons that have never been fully understood she began attacking her young patients, murdering four of them.

In court parents of her victims heard how Allitt injected them with insulin potassium or air.

Allitt is in Rampton high security hospital serving 13 life sentences.

The future...

It is of course too early to say what the future holds for Rothley – and for the McCanns who remain suspects in their daughter's disappearance.

However, that does not stop people in the village looking ahead and hoping for a miracle, hoping Madeleine will be found safe and well and their story will be relegated to the history books.