The mother of Madeleine McCann has admitted for the first time to having “desperate” days when she considers giving up the search for her daughter.

Kate McCann, 40, says that lack of progress in finding Madeleine has left her feeling “down, desperate and exhausted”. The couple have also received a death threat and legal sources fear the Portuguese police may charge them with neglect for leaving Madeleine alone while they dined in a nearby restaurant.

Despite all this their spirits have been lifted since they travelled to Washington last month where they met Ed Smart, whose daughter Elizabeth was taken from her bed by a homeless preacher. She was found after nine months of campaigning.

Footage of the emotional meeting between the McCanns and Smart, to be broadcast in an ITV documentary on Wednesday, was released as the couple prepared to use this week’s anniversary to reenergise the search for Madeleine.

Kate said: “You have days when you’re so down and desperate and tired, you think you’ve got to switch off and I think, okay, we’ve tried really hard and we’ve come up with nothing and now we need to make the best of what we’ve got. [But] we’re never going to hit that day. It doesn’t matter how small the possibility is [of Madeleine being found alive], the possibility is still there.”

Their young twins, Sean and Amelie, still include Madeleine in their games. “They make phone calls to her on their toy phones, then go off to find her,” she said.

“If they talk about her they will be told that Madeleine’s not here and everyone’s looking for her. It’s not brushed under the carpet.”

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