THE parents of a missing teenager last night thanked the public for their help after she returned home.

Kimberley Hughes was missing for five days last week, but reappeared at her uncle’s home in Owen’s Way, Cowley on Friday evening.

The 14-year-old, of Regent Street, East Oxford, disappeared after playing outside with her brothers at their home about 4.30pm on Monday.

Yesterday, her mother Deborah Hughes, 40, said: “We just want to thank everyone involved, family members, the public, were brilliant. I think she realised she was missing her family and it prompted her to come home. My husband and I were thinking about cancelling Christmas but now we don’t have to.

“When she was found she was very hungry and hadn’t eaten since Monday.”

Kimberley was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital with stomach pains the evening she was found, but was given the all-clear by doctors.

The pupil at Cheney School said: “I went to stay with a friend. I wanted to get my head straight after everything going on in the house, arguments with my brothers. I won’t go missing again.”