Ex-professional footballer Clarke Carlisle 's first words since his disappearance which sparked a police manhunt last month carry an poignant message.
The former Burnley, QPR and Leeds turned TV pundit - who has a history of mental illness - vanished for 12 hours before he was finally found when he suddenly went missing without any apparent explanation.
Today, for the first time since that incident, Carlisle - one time chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association, posted on Twitter his thanks to everyone for their understanding.
Carlisle, who turned 38 last Saturday, said: "I can’t begin to thank you all for your love and support in recent weeks.
"I know I’m not alone, and neither are any of you."
The Twitter post this morning was accompanied by the hashtag: #SmallSteps.
MirrorOnline reported last month how Carlisle's heavily pregnant wife told for the first time of her pain when he went missing.
Carrie Carlisle, 33, waited anxiously by the phone as police launched a hunt for the football star.
An agonising 12 hours passed before he was finally found in Liverpool.
Carrie warned mental health care in the UK was “inadequate” after her husband – who was previously reported to have thrown himself in front of a lorry three years ago – went missing.
Six-months-pregnant at the time, she added: “Marriage is to put a heart into someone’s hands and hope they are careful with it. Mental healthcare is far more risky. To do the same, but with a mind, The Chronicle reported .
“When that care is not adequate, the results are the reality my family now finds itself in.”
Carrie, who had also tweeted that her husband Clarke was in hospital , said she could not fully “comprehend” mental illness. But she senses how it can feel.
“It’s all so clear now,” she wrotein her Newcastle Journal column.
“Blind terror. Fear that is fathomless. Relentless anguish that knows no respite.
“Yet still, throughout it all, I’m aware I cannot ever truly grasp it. This is the true horror. Despite the appalling emotions, I have run the gauntlet of these past days, I am mentally well.
“I still count my blessings. My husband is alive. My unborn baby is alive. Both are my solace.”
Carrie married him earlier this year and they share a home in Preston, Lancs.
In 2014, he was found badly hurt on the A64, N Yorks.
The TV pundit, who has three children, spent a month in a coma.
He set up the Clarke Carlisle Foundation for Dual Diagnosis for those with “mental health problems and drug or alcohol misuse”.
Chris Kilbride, 24, never got over the trauma of finding Clarke. He killed himself in 2015, leaving two children and a pregnant partner.