A search team will travel from Northern Ireland to Spain to join in the hunt for a missing Belfast man after a public fundraising campaign.
John George, also known as John Hardy, last made contact with his father Billy on December 14.
Spanish police believe the 36-year-old father-of-two was shot dead soon afterwards.
Eight technicians and two dogs from K9 Search and Rescue NI will travel tomorrow to Alicante, where Mr George was last seen.
Chair Joanne Dorrian said it had received requests for help from the family and the public.
Ms Dorrian’s sister Lisa disappeared from a caravan park in north Down in 2005. She is believed to have been murdered, but her body has never been found.
“John’s family said they had really had no support out there from professional search and rescue agencies,” she said.
“They are out there searching themselves, but they’ve realised that the area is so vast that they need skilled professionals to help them.
K9SARNI Chair Joanne Dorrian (centre), treasurer Don Allen (left) and dog handler Shauna Harper with search and rescue dog Koda
“We have been in close contact with Courtney, John George’s sister, and have been trying to get the logistics sorted.”
Ms Dorrian said the fact Mr George was a local added to the wish to help.
Joanne Dorrian
“We do this to find missing people, no matter who they are or where they come from, but when you hear it is someone from here, from Belfast, of course that resonates with you,” she added.
“All of the team are thinking: ‘This could be my son, my brother’. And when you watch videos of John George’s father desperately begging for help, you couldn’t help but be moved by that.
“There were videos posted and we were just phoning each other within the team saying we had to do something — we absolutely had to try and get out.
The search for missing John George is continuing in Alicante
“The team and the search manager have a very bespoke way of detailing where needs to be searched based on the landscape, the situation, and we would do that with any missing person.
“That will be based on the last location being the apartment he was staying in while he was there.”
Allison Morris reporting from Spain, on the missing man John George
The group is self-funded and the operation has been made possible by the public drive that has raised almost £23,000.
“Thankfully there have been a lot of donations from the public; the family has an army of people behind them and people are really supportive,” she said.
“We are not in a privileged position with the Spanish authorities; it is a case of we just need to get out there and start looking for him, take it one day at a time.”
John George’s father Billy
It comes as fears grow the main suspects in the Belfast man’s disappearance are planning to flee the jurisdiction.
A solicitor acting for the family has also written to the PSNI asking if Interpol can be brought in to help with the investigation, as one person of interest is understood to have already left Spain for Thailand.
John’s father Billy met with detectives at the headquarters of the Guardia Civil in Alicante on Monday morning.
He said that, as the family exhausted new leads, they needed more professional help.
“As the days go on this is really taking its toll on us,” he told the Belfast Telegraph..
“The family are trying to remain strong and focus on the positives, but that’s easier said than done.”
Billy George, father of John George, talks to Allison Morris