Before every holiday Eileen Fahey leaves notes to her son detailing where she is in case he comes home.
"I know he knows my number, so I answer every single call that comes to my phone," she says.
"I don't care where the phone call comes from and I don't care if it's two, three, four, five am, I answer that phone because it might be him."
In 2013 Anthony Fahey caught a bus to Sydney from Belconnen in the ACT. He's not been seen or heard from since.
Ms Fahey says she hopes National Missing Persons Week will help bring to light new information surrounding lost people and spread awareness about the support networks for those left behind.
Following the 1982 disappearance of Tony Jones, his family helped create National Missing Persons Week 30 years ago in 1988.
Approximately 38,000 missing person reports are made to Australian police each year. While most concern people located within the first week, there are currently 2600 classified as missing long-term - more than three months.
The are a multitude of reasons people go missing including those to do with mental health, dementia and family violence. However Trish Halligan from NMPW wants to stress that help is available within the community.
"If they are suffering or not coping, there are support services out there; the don't need to run away, they don't need to go missing," she says.
The national awareness campaign runs from August 5 - 11 and includes 30 profiles of missing people the Australian Federal Police encourage people to share via social media.
"After all, the community is our eyes and ears in these cases, helping police find the many thousands of people who go missing each year," AFP Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan says.
Part of this year's campaign includes a video detailing the way in which lives like Ms Fahey's are transformed forever.
"I have a very vivid memory of Anthony coming into the kitchen and sitting at the end of the bench, I can hear his voice," she tells AAP.
"If I move will I lose that?"
"And will Anthony finally come one day, to a strangers home?"
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