The family of a man who has been missing since the beginning of the week are appealing for help in finding him and say they just want him to come home.

Nigel Knights, pictured here, had been on a shopping trip at Morrisions in Strood, with his wife Sue when he walked out of the store and disappeared.

Mr Knights, 63, who had been staying at a caravan park in Allhallows, had not been feeling himself recently and has lost a lot of weight.

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He and his wife Sue had flown back to Britain from Lanzarote, one of the Canary islands, and were in Medway to attend a christening event at the weekend.

However, during a shopping trip with Mrs Knights on Monday evening he walked out of the shop and despite a frantic search of the immediate area and the store, Mr Knights has not been seen since.

Police issued an appeal to help trace him and, along with the Medway Coastguard Team, carried out an extensive search of the area until the early hours of Tuesday morning in the hope of finding him.

The police helicopter was also scrambled to help officers on the ground in the search, but no trace of Mr Knights was found.

Yesterday afternoon the Coastguard helicopter was scrambled again to complete a search of the River Medway and was seen flying up and down the river for some time.

Mr Knight, who is originally from the Cuxton area, has two sons and four stepdaughters and five grandchildren and used to be a keen runner.

Speaking exclusively to KentOnline's sister paper the Medway Messenger, his stepdaughter, Nicola Martin, said: “We just want him to come home.

“We love him and just want to take care of him. He would not like all this fuss, the police searching for him, he would be mortified.

"He has not been himself recently and has lot a lot of weight and my mum was just picking something off the shelf and had turned her back on him for a moment and he was gone.

"The CCTV at the store shows him walking out at 8pm, but we don‘t know in what direction he went in.

“We can’t thank the police enough they started searching for him as soon as we called them.

If anyone has seen him I would urge them to call the police number as I know it sounds silly but are hoping he’s just gone off for a long walk and has got a bit lost.

“We all miss him and he has no phone, no cash or anything on him and its horrible to think he’s out there on his own.

He’s not been well and has lost a lot of weight, we are worried about him.”

This morning a fresh search started when Kent Search and Rescue arrived at Medway Bridge Marina. The Coastguard helicopter is also expected to resume the search later this morning.

Mr Knights is 5ft 7ins, thin, with dark, greying hair and was wearing a mauve sweatshirt and navy track suit bottoms with white stripes when he was last seen.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 101 quoting reference 09*1319.