AN EVENING of music, laughter and tears will mark almost a year since a Chester woman mysteriously vanished at sea.

Almost 12 months after Rebecca Coriam vanished from onboard the Disney Wonder Cruise Liner her family are still searching for answers about what happened to their ‘fun-loving’ and ‘sport-mad’ daughter.

Now the devastated family of the cruise ship worker from Guilden Sutton are holding a special evening to celebrate her life and raise money for their mission to stop other families being ‘kept in the dark’ by changing the policing law on cruise liners.

Rebecca, known to her friends as Bex, would have celebrated her 25th birthday last week, but was reported missing from the cruise liner while it was sailing from Los Angeles to Mexico on March 22 – and has never been found.

This Saturday hundreds of friends, relatives and supporters of Rebecca’s devastated parents Ann and Mike Coriam are expected to gather at Chester Racecourse for an evening of entertainment in memory of the former Liverpool Hope University student.

Rebecca’s uncle John Jennings said that a year on, the family was still no closer to finding any answers about what happened to Rebecca and where still being ‘left in the dark’.

“Her birthday was a really sad day. If she had been here Ann and Mike would have spoiled her rotten,” said John, who said the family were still fighting to find the truth.

“I cannot believe it has been a year, we still want to know what happened to Rebecca and won’t stop until we find out. We cannot move forward, how do you move forward from something like this, it is like we are stuck in time.

“The fundraising and petition have given Ann and Mike something to focus on. Not a day goes by when we don’t think of Bex and miss her, we need people to sign the petition and stop other people going through what we have been through.”

John said that everyone would have the chance to sign a petition to get laws and transparency surrounding policing on cruise ships discussed in Parliament and eventually changed to protect British nationals working and travelling at sea.

“We need 100,000 signatures online, but so far we only have around 800, we don’t understand why people are not signing it. It only takes a second and could stop other people going through the pain that Ann and Mike have gone through,” said John.

An Evening For Rebecca/One Year On will be held at Chester Racecourse on Saturday from 8pm. Anyone is welcome. Tickets are £5 for adults and free for children and all money will go to the Rebecca Coriam Foundation.

To sign the Coriam’s petition, visit www.rebecca-coriam.com.