Leanne CoxManaging director Mike Cox from Potterne has had the heart rending task of going to Thailand in a forlorn search for his 23-year-old niece Leanne.

Mr Cox, managing director of Discovery Records in Nursteed Road, Devizes, flew half way around the world in a bid to find Leanne who was staying on Koh Phi Phi island when the tsunami struck on Boxing Day.

He accompanied his former sister-in-law Jean, while Leanne's father Alan stayed at his home near Newcastle in case she called.

Mr Cox, 55, said that as soon as he heard about the tsunami he thought of his niece because he knew she was in Thailand. His own daughter Tessa had been out there nine months ago and had stayed at the same resort.

"We were desperately worried because Leanne was with a group of other young people and one by one they had all rung to say they were safe although a couple of them had been in hospital," Mr Cox said.

"As the days went on and my niece had not called home we began to fear for her safety."

On Friday Mr Cox and his sister-in-law flew to Phuket where they were met by British Embassy officials, who he praised for their help.

They checked the registers kept of the missing, pinned up Leanne's picture with all the others asking for information and searched through hundreds of photographs of recovered bodies.

"They could have been anybody," said Mr Cox. "They were hardly recognisable. It was a horrible sight."

Embassy officials then broke the news that all the British survivors in Thailand had been identified and Leanne was not among them.

"They told us they could not offer any hope that she might still be alive," said Mr Cox.

Before leaving the country, Leanne's mother gave DNA samples so that they might be matched with those taken from one of the thousands of recovered bodies, but they were warned it may be many months, if ever, that a match is found.