MUM, please let us know you are okay. This is the desperate plea from the teenage children of missing woman Emma Palmer, who was last seen more than three weeks ago.

Since her disappearance, her son Alex, 18, and daughter Josephine, 15, have been waiting anxiously for news at the family home in Sandbanks Road, Lower Parkstone.

Speaking to the Echo, Alex said: "Mum, please let us know you are safe and well. We all want to know that you are okay and we need you home."

He said he still believed she could return home safely and added: "We as a family need to keep that hope going."

Josephine said: "Please come home. We just want to know that you are safe and well and where you are so we can come and see you."

Emma, a hotel receptionist, was last seen at her home at 8am on Saturday, September 10.

Her red Mini Cooper was found abandoned later that day in a layby on the A351 at Holton Heath near Wareham.

She had left her purse and credit cards in the car but took a handbag and mobile phone. Records show she has not used her mobile phone since.

Police dog handlers, divers, officers on foot and the police helicopter have been involved in the search for Emma and well as specially-trained volunteers and dogs from Dorset Search and Rescue.

There have been some possible sightings of Emma - but none has proved fruitful.

It is understood Emma had been receiving treatment from her doctor for depression and left her medication behind.

Emma is white, 5ft 6ins, with blonde highlighted hair. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing oval gold-trimmed glasses, a short-sleeved pink Fat Face top, matching three-quarter-length pink trousers and Reef flipflops.

Acting DI Ben Hargreaves, of Poole police, also made a plea for information.

"It would help a lot of people if she could contact us or the National Missing Persons Helpline to let us know she is safe," he said.

"From having spoken to her friends and family, there are a lot of people wanting to provide support, and if she's aware of this we need her to make herself known."

Anyone with information about Emma should call Dorset Police on 01202 222222 or the National Missing Persons Helpline on 0500 700700

First published: October 3