TODAY we ask the people of Swindon to perform one of the most vital tasks one human can do for another.

It is exactly one week since 21-year-old Amanda Edwards went missing from her Purton home. A thousand posters bearing her image can be seen throughout the area and a hundred police officers are combing the area for the slightest clue to her whereabouts.

But the posters' message and the thousands of hours of dedicated work by the police are at risk of being meaningless without the help of every member of the public.

Some people will be worried about coming forward because they know this is such an important investigation and are afraid that whatever they contribute will waste police time.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Detectives investigating a disappearance will happily sift through a hundred potential leads if just one brings a missing person home to their loved ones.

Amanda's home village is Purton, she was last seen in person in Calne, and her distinctive green Rover Metro was found abandoned in the car park of the West Swindon District Centre.

As Det Chief Supt Paul Howlett said: "Thousands of people must have passed through this shopping centre last Thursday.

"I cannot believe that no-one saw Amanda's car arrive here."

People in this area tend to live busy lives, full of stress and with too many tasks to cram into the allotted time.

But Amanda is more important than any of those tasks.

That is why every man, every woman and every child old enough to comprehend the significance of what is happening should take some special time out today.

We should study the posters, we should note the words of the police officers, we should think about where we might have been at the relevant times and to sieve our memories for any possible clue, however small.

After all, that is what we would hope others would do for us and for our loved ones if we ever found ourselves in such a situation.