A HEARTBROKEN mother is appealing for help to bring home her son after he was discovered in a psychiatric hospital in Brazil. David Taylor, 40, disappeared in the Gambia in April after telling his 65-year-old mother, Pauline, that he feared for his life.

A HEARTBROKEN mother is appealing for help to bring home her son after he was discovered in a psychiatric hospital in Brazil.

David Taylor, 40, disappeared in the Gambia in April after telling his 65-year-old mother, Pauline, that he feared for his life.

That was the last time she spoke to him.

He was registered as a missing person and was believed to still be in West Africa until Saturday, September 12, when he was found in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He had no possessions or identification, and was admitted to a psychiatric ward of a city hospital.

"We don't know how David got to Brazil, and neither does he," said Mrs Taylor, of Ashton Gardens, Huntingdon. "He is very confused and he doesn't know where he is.

"I have been told that he keeps asking to go home, but he doesn't know where home is."

Mr Taylor was identified from photographs provided by his mother and a distinctive tattoo.

"He has no money, no possessions and no passport. We have to find the money to fly him home, but I'm on a pension - I cannot afford to fly out there, or to fly him back.

"The stress of this is making me ill, and I am having trouble sleeping."

Mr Taylor moved to the Gambia to live with his mother in April 2008, but had his passport stolen within weeks of arriving.

Mrs Taylor said that with no money to replace the passport, he found himself unable to move back to the UK when she had to return in January through ill health.

Mr Taylor kept in touch with fortnightly phone calls, but the last call was in April of this year.

"He told me that he had been badly beaten up, he hadn't eaten for five days and had no money. He said 'Mum, I fear for my life'. That was the last I heard from him."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed to The Hunts Post that a British national had been identified in Sao Paulo, but said stranded travellers were only flown home in the most extreme circumstances when all domestic sources of funding had been exhausted.

Even if Mrs Taylor can raise the money, there is no guarantee that she will be able to bring her son home. She was told that David would be released from hospital on Tuesday, September 22 and is worried he may go missing again.

"He has no way of getting a bed for the night, and will have to sleep on the streets. If we are not able to raise the money quickly, it may be too late.