Alisa Clamen is back in Montreal, after spending the last two months abroad, and she’s ramping up search and rescue efforts to find her missing son, Jesse Galganov.

She’s been on the ground in Peru, working with local officials and search teams there. She also enlisted the help of an Israeli company the specializes in search

“It’s my birthday tomorrow and that’s what I want for my birthday — I want my son,” Clamen said Thursday afternoon to CBC’s Homerun host Sue Smith.

Galganov, 22, left Montreal late September for an 8-month backpacking trip through South America and Asia.

The last time Clamen heard from him was on Sept. 28, just before he embarked on what was supposed to be a four-day trek in the Cordillera Blanca mountains.

“I’m surviving — just trying to get through every day. Just trying to keep the search going and trying to find my son,” she said. “This is living hell. This is something that no one should ever have to live through.”

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The Israeli company Clamen contacted, Magnus International Search and Rescue, uses teams on the ground as well as satellite networks and drones to locate missing people in remote areas.

“They plotted out a very meticulous grid of where they think he could be in the mountains,” Claman said.

The company tracked down the last people Galganov camped with on the night of Sept. 30: two men from France.

“He left them the morning of Oct. 1 and that’s the last contact that anyone had. So I guess my gut tells me that something happened and he had an accident and he’s somewhere on that trail and we need to find him and get him home.”

Clamen said that according to the two French tourists, her son had been feeling ill and was likely suffering from altitude sickness.

“He wasn’t feeling well but camped with them and got up in the morning and seemed better,” Clamen said. “My heart also goes out to these two French men because they said if they thought anything was wrong, they would never have let him go off alone.”

Clamen said no evidence has been found pertaining to her son’s whereabouts.

“Not an item of his clothing, not an item of his equipment — not an item has been found. It’s impossible to live without knowing where your son is.”

Astronomical costs

Clamen says the costs of the non-stop search efforts in Peru have so far totalled $700,000 US.

A crowdfunding page, Help Us Find Jesse,  has been set up to pay for resources to bring Galganov home.

The community is also getting involved.

An event has been organized to take place at Suite 55, a night club in Dorval, this weekend on Saturday, Dec. 2 starting at 8 p.m.

“Money is going straight to the search team and funding everything on the ground and this is how we’re going to find Jesse,” Clamen said.