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Character Profiles > Emily Hancock Isabella Oldham

Emily Hancock 2001-2002
Lived: 32 Ramsay Street
Born: c. 1995/'96
Parents: Evan and Maggie Hancock
Siblings: Matthew, Chris, Leo and Francesca
Family Tree: Hancock
Occupation: School Pupil

Emily was born to Maggie and Evan Hancock soon after the death of her older sister, Francesca. Emily was immediately surrounded by family with a brother, Leo and two half-brothers, Matthew and Chris, from her dad's first marriage. Emily was extremely well cared for as a child, perhaps viewed by her parents as a replacement for Francesca. All this care turned Emily into a fun-loving and perceptive little girl.

When Evan scored a teaching job at Erinsborough High School, the whole family moved to the suburb of Erinsborough, specifically number 32, Ramsay Street. Emily had grown used to having various family members care for her, since her mother had begun her law degree. Soon after the move to Ramsay Street, the family had to once again endure the anniversary of Francesca's death. While Emily was too young to understand the full implications of the day, she realised that her family was unhappy, thinking that maybe it was something she had done.

Emily was upset, when, one day in the Coffee Shop, her favourite doll was mysteriously stolen. At first she blamed Leo, who had been known to hide his sister's belongings from time to time, but he denied any knowledge of the incident. Emily had almost given up hope on ever seeing her doll again, when she and Leo spotted it at the mall, in the shop belonging to Collector Bob. They decided not to tell their parents, but rather try to retrieve the doll themselves. However, just when they thought they had succeeded, Bob caught them, but fortunately Maggie arrived just in time. She told Bob that she was a lawyer and could come down on him very hard if he tried to claim the doll as his own. While Emily and doll were reunited, Maggie was still very upset with her children for going behind her back like that.

A few weeks later, a box arrived at the Hancock house. When they had moved in, the removal men had forgotten one of the boxes and so it had been delivered later on. However, they delivered the wrong box and Maggie planned to return it the next day. In the meantime, Emily started looking through the box and found some jewellery. She tried on a pair of earrings and decided to keep them. Unfortunately, when the real owners got their box back, they accused the Hancocks of theft and Emily admitted she had lost the earrings. The cash-strapped Hancocks were extremely worried about how they would afford this. One day while babysitting Emily, Leo shouted at her that she was to blame for all the family's problems. An upset Emily decided to run away and managed to sneak onto a bus. When the bus arrived at the terminal, Emily was asleep and the driver didn't notice she was there, so she ended up locked on the bus all night. When she woke up, she panicked and as soon as the driver opened the door the next morning, she jumped off and ran away. The driver reported the matter and Maggie and Evan, who had, along with most of Ramsay Street, been searching all night, headed to the area.

The police launched a search in the bushland around the bus station. A scared Emily knew that there were people around looking for her, but she continued to hide, scared about the amount of trouble she might be in. However, back home, Leo was feeling extremely guilty about causing Emily to run away and he convinced Michelle Scully to lend him the money to get the train up to help with the search. Maggie was shocked to see Leo arrive, but he insisted that he wanted to help in any way he could. As soon as Leo started to search and began calling for Emily, she decided to show her face and the Hancock family were finally reunited.

Emily's disappearance caused the social services to be suspicious of the family and they arrived, intent on finding out why the children of the Hancock family seemed so adept at running away. However, chats with Leo and Emily, as well as the support of their neighbours, particularly Susan Kennedy, meant that the issue was soon resolved.

Soon after, Emily began complaining of a pain in her ear. However, numerous visits to Dr. Kennedy brought Maggie no closer to discovering the cause of this pain. The situation grew more tense as Maggie felt she was neglecting her children for her law career and Emily's protests that her ear hurt just continued. After sneaking out one day, Emily ran out in front of Karl's car and he only just managed to stop short of hitting her. A distraught Maggie brought Emily inside and gave her some ice cream as a treat for being such a brave girl. However, Karl quickly noticed how much the cold ice cream was making Emily wince and he soon realised that the problem was with her teeth, rather than her ear and after a trip to the dentist, Emily's pain was over.

While her family was plagued with other problems, Emily began to talk of a new friend of hers. It was only when Harold heard that the name of Emily's new friend was Madge, that he realised who Emily might be talking to. When Emily later showed Dee and Harold a box that Madge had shown her in the backyard of number 24, containing mementoes from Madge's life, they realised that there was every possibility that Emily could actually be in touch with a ghost. Emily's communication with Madge was extremely moving for Harold, giving him a new link to his dead wife. Emily's friendship with Madge meant a lot to her when her parents began having serious problems and the actions of her half-brother, Matt, meant that the family had to sell their home and move away to her grandparents home in Albury. Infact, on the day of their departure, Emily caused one last problem when she disappeared again.  This time, however, she was easy to find - she was in the garden of number 24, saying goodbye to her good friend Madge.

Trivia Notes
• Emily Hancock was a big fan of The Wiggles
• Isabella Oldham originated the role of Emily Hancock, when Karl and Susan Kennedy looked after her and Leo in 2000. By the time the character returned as a regular cast member, the ties with the Kennedys had been forgotten. Because of this, Perfect Blend treats the two Emilys as separate characters