TO lose a child must cause unimaginable pain. To lose a child without knowing what happened to them must be even more unbearable. Especially when that spirit-crushing uncertainty lasts for a decade.

Today is the tenth anniversary of the day when Claudia Lawrence was last seen alive, and in those ten intervening years, North Yorkshire Police have been unable to ascertain how or why the then 35-year-old chef vanished.

There have been arrests, and the case was reviewed as recently as 2013 following the creation of North Yorkshire Police’s Major Crime Unit, but while Claudia is officially described as missing, presumed dead, no one has been charged in relation to her disappearance in March 2009.

Goodness only knows how her parents, Joan and Peter, have coped, but as they prepare to participate in a new appeal for information, we salute their bravery and fortitude.

Like them, we have always believed that someone, somewhere has the missing piece of information that would enable the police to complete their investigation.

Perhaps they do not realise they are withholding it? Perhaps they are purposefully concealing it from the authorities? Either way, it is prolonging the Lawrence family’s agony.

It is not too late to act. Ten years on from Claudia’s disappearance, we urge anyone who knows anything about her movements on March 18, 2009, or the following few days, to contact the police. We fervently hope it does not take another ten years to uncover the truth.