THE grandparents of Ben Needham went to Athens yesterday to make an emotional new appeal for information on the fifth anniversary of his disappearance on a Greek holiday island.
Mrs Christine and Mr Eddie Needham hope a £530,000 reward may yield results.
Ben was 19 months old when he went missing on July 24th, 1991 on Kos, where his family was renovating a house.
There have been numerous false alarms that have raised and then dashed the hopes of Ben's mother, Kerry, and his grandparents, but the boy has never been seen since that date.
The family, from Sheffield, has returned to Greece several times, following up sightings of blond haired children the same age as Ben. They believe the youngster, who would now be nearly seven, could have been sold to a family living anywhere in Europe.
Last month an anonymous businessman pledged a £500,000 reward for the child's safe return on top of the £30,000 the family offered two years ago.
"The huge sum may encourage someone to come forward with information," Mr Needham said at a news conference in Athens yesterday.
Progress on the case was "slow" at the moment, but he added. "We will never give up searching for him.
Details of the reward money totalling 191 million Greek drachmas are featured on a poster.
Mrs Needham said after the news conference. "I think we have come to a desperate point in our search for Ben. Five years have taken their toll and we needed something to catch the public eye as well as our faces on TV saying. `Please help us'."
In addition to hoping from a call "from someone who knows everything", the family are hoping the huge reward could prompt people with "small bits of information" to get in touch, said Mrs Needham.
Ben's mother has been unwell for some time and has been unable to join them in Greece, said Mrs Need ham.