Great news! This morning at 3.30am, we heard a frantic meowwing downstairs, charlie had come home! He has lost at least a third of his body mass, his once belly has completely dissappeared, all his paws look sore and his nails are all worn right down and untidy looking, but he is home and safe, our whole house awoke, charlie even went into our daughters room and woke her up (shes 6) what a special moment, thankyou ever so much to all of you who helped along the way.
Time to feed him up, get a proper name and address tag and a micro-chip fitted to him.