A chance encounter in Blackpool heralded the safe return of a High Valleyfield man who went missing for more than six weeks.
The family of Andrew Millar, 66, are said to be “ecstatic” after he was spotted in the seaside town by someone who had been given a photo of him just days before.
Mr Millar’s safe return is thanks to former High Valleyfield resident William Emslie, who now lives in Fleetwood, just north of Blackpool.
He was given a photo of Mr Millar while visiting his uncle, Johnstone Little, in High Valleyfield.
On his return home, he had promised to keep a lookout for the missing pensioner, who had been to Blackpool in the past with his racing pigeons and was suspected to be in the area.
And by good fortune, he stumbled across Mr Millar in the street.
Mr Little, who is a friend of Mr Millar, said: “My nephew was up from Fleetwood last week. I gave him a couple of photos to take down with him. He said no problem, and that he and his wife would keep an eye out for him.
“Andrew said to me that he was going to go down to the waterside that morning, because that’s where he spent a lot of his time but it was kind of windy.
“So he went down the town to a sports shop and that’s when my nephew saw him. It was just before he got to the shop. My nephew turned around and Andrew was at the back of him.
“Obviously, the family are ecstatic at getting him home and they can’t thank my nephew enough. It’s just by chance he was up here last week and I gave him the photos and they decided to go and look for him.”
Mr Little said his friend, an ex-miner, had suffered memory loss and travelled around on buses without knowing where he was.
The last sightings of him were CCTV images taken inside a bus, which showed he had travelled to Dumfries via Glasgow on July 16, the day he disappeared.
“The only time he knew where he was was a couple of days ago in Blackpool. He looked out of the window and saw the lights, then looked out the other side and saw the Blackpool Tower. He’s been in Blackpool umpteen times, so knew where he was.
“He used to go down there years and years ago when he had racing pigeons. He doesn’t know himself what happened. He was just travelling from bus to bus, getting on buses and not knowing where they were going to.”
On hearing he had been traced, an auntie travelled from Wigan to meet him. He had been staying in a hotel and had bought clothes for himself on his journey.
Mr Little added: “He’s looking well.”