MISSING Claudia Lawrence’s sister has revealed how she clings to the hope she will still be found alive and well.

Ali Sims has not seen or heard from her younger sister for more than a year, but she says that at least once a week she dreams Claudia walks into her mother’s home and gives her a hug.

Writing in a Sunday newspaper, she said that when police recently spent three days searching an area near the University of York, where Claudia worked, she was terrified every time the telephone rang in case it was bad news.

“They found nothing,” she said. “And I was so relieved. I’d rather cling to the hope that she’s still alive, than get the answer I dread – that she’s been murdered, and the only way I will see or hear her voice again is in my dreams.

“But until that day comes, I still have hope that maybe my dream will come true, and she’ll come home.”

A massive international police search for Claudia has been underway since shortly after she left work at the University of York on March 18, 2009. Detectives fear she has been murdered.

Mrs Sims revealed how she struggles to be strong for the sisters’ parents and described how bpth young and old members of Claudia’s family, including her own children have coped with Claudia’s absence. She talked about the anguish she and her parents suffered from media stories that the missing chef had a series of affairs with married men. Mrs Sims said her father was exhausted, as he combined working full-time as a solicitor with travelling around the country making desperate appeals for anyone who has information to come forward, and her mother was worn out with worry.

On the anniversary of Claudia’s disappearance, police revealed she had been on a secret date 48 hours before she went missing.

Mrs Sims said: “If only she’d told me who she was meeting. Maybe this man holds the key to where Claudia is or what has happened to her.”