I know Claudia is still alive: Mum

Joan Lawrence spoke of her heartache ahead of the second anniversary tomorrow since her daughter was last seen walking close to her home in York.

And she revealed Madeleine McCann’s family had helped her find solace during her ordeal.

Mrs Lawrence has still not given up hope of being re-united with the York University chef despite a murder inquiry being launched and detectives failing to find any clue as to her whereabouts.

She explained that she has been in touch with another mother whose daughter was murdered, who told her she knew straight away what had happened.

Mrs Lawrence, 66, from Norton in North Yorkshire, said: “I can’t feel any other instinct than that she’s alive. I feel that as a mum I would feel that I would know something.”

She also spoke of the support she has been given by Kate McCann, whose own daughter, Madeleine, went missing aged just three while on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.

Mrs Lawrence said Mrs McCann was a “huge, huge help” as they both attempted to come to terms with the still unsolved cases of their daughters’ disappearances.

Mrs McCann met Mrs Lawrence’s ex-husband, Peter, for the first time at a candlelit vigil in York Minster last month for families of missing people.

Detectives in the North Yorkshire force believe Miss Lawrence has been murdered and inquiries have delved into her tangled love life in a bid to solve the high-profile case.

But officers have revealed that their investigations have been hampered because Miss Lawrence’s ex-lovers, some of whom are married, have been unwilling to disclose information.

Mrs Lawrence hit back at speculation over her daughter’s private life, and said she believed there had been an “awful lot of mistakes” in the inquiry.

Mrs Lawrence, who has another daughter, Ali, who lives in the Peak District, pointed in particular to “all this talk of old boyfriends”.

She added: “It’s not the Claudia I know.”

Despite launching North Yorkshire Police’s biggest investigation in recent years, detectives remain baffled as to what has happened to Miss Lawrence.

Inquiries have stretched as far afield as Cyprus, where Miss Lawrence used to regularly go on holiday, and Ireland as officers interviewed former lovers and friends.

While her mother still believes she is alive, hopes that Miss Lawrence would be found alive began to fade within days of her disappearance.

The missing person inquiry was upgraded to a murder investigation the month after she vanished.

Miss Lawrence’s father discovered her home was empty when he let himself in on the morning of March 20, 2009, after becoming concerned about her whereabouts.

Her bank cards, cash and passport were apparently untouched but her mobile telephone, a silver Samsung D900, and a blue Karrimor rucksack in which she carried her chef’s whites were not there, suggesting she may have left for work as usual, but never arrived.

It emerged earlier this week that a £10,000 reward which the Crimestoppers charity had offered the month after Miss Lawrence went missing had not been renewed.