The distraught family of a man who has been missing for over a week are pleading with Buddies to take part in a mass search on Thursday.
Barry McCullagh went missing from Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital on Wednesday, October 5, days after he suffered a seizure and began hallucinating.
The 40-year-old had been allowed out of the Paisley hospital at 5.20pm to have a smoke but was captured on CCTV moments later walking on Corsebar Road away from the hospital.
After a week of fruitless searches and appeals for information his desperate family – who have a second brother in intensive care at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital – are asking Buddies to help them look for Barry.
His sister Stacey McCullagh told the Paisley Daily Express: “Barry wasn’t in a good state of mind the night before he went missing, that’s why we called an ambulance. He wasn’t the normal Barry, he was hallucinating.
“He has been taking seizures for the past year-and-a-half and he took a seizure on Saturday and he hadn’t been right since so we phoned the ambulance on Tuesday. He went with them to hospital and that was the last time we saw him.”
She added: “We just can’t get over the fact that he is out there somewhere on his own. We just don’t know what has happened. He has nothing on him, no money and no phone or anything.
“He could have wandered somewhere and fallen, we just don’t know.”
Stacey, her sister April and extended family – who all live in Castlemilk, Glasgow – have been travelling to Paisley day and night to search for dad-of-two Barry.
The family are focusing their search on the woodlands and locations in the immediate area.
They have now organised a detailed search plan and are asking people living in Paisley, especially those who know the area well, to join them in looking for Barry.
They plan to complete one search on Thursday and a second on Saturday.
Stacey added: “We are asking please that if anyone can help to meet us there. Every little helps, every extra pair of fresh eyes, we would be so grateful.
“A close friend has printed maps out for us so we are going to meet tomorrow to hopefully cover all of the woodland areas and cross them off as we go.”
A particularly harrowing time for the McCullagh family, Stacey’s brother Brian was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth five months ago for tests and has been in intensive care ever since.
Her third sibling, April, is also seven months pregnant and worried sick about both her brothers.
Stacey said: “Our heads are just everywhere. They are my two brothers.
“My sister April is pregnant. She has just eight weeks left and they are trying everything to keep her calm.
“Mum and dad, their heads are all over the place. I’m trying to stay strong for mum and dad and just get Barry home.”
Renfrewshire police have completed several searches for Barry, with sniffer dogs used on Tuesday evening.
Anyone with any information on Barry’s whereabouts is asked to contact 101 quoting reference 3910 of 5 October, 2022.
People who want to take part in either of the searches should meet the McCullagh family at the cricket pitches opposite the entrance to the RAH at 10am on Thursday.
Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire. Sign up to our newsletters here
