Messages of support from around the world have been flooding in for Kay Gilderdale and her family through the Sussex & Kent ME/CFS Society’s website. Over 120 messages have been posted at the condolences page that was started up after many members of the charity expressed how they wanted to show support for the family but did not know how to do it without intruding during what has been an awful time for them. kay has read many of the messages posted and has written expressing the family’s appreciation and how they had gained strength from so many caring people from Sussex and beyond.

Mrs Gilderdale, from Stone Cross, near Heathfield, was cleared in court recently of the attempted murder of her daughter Lynn, 31, who she had cared for since she became bedridden with the condition aged 14. She had already admitted a charge of aiding and abetting her daughter’s suicide.

Comments on the website include one from Zelda, who wrote: “My heart goes out to you for all the suffering that you’ve been through. What you did must be seen as a great act of love, to relieve your lovely daughter’s unbearable suffering. I hope you find peace of mind and comfort now Lynn is at last at rest.”

Mrs Gilderdale appeared on the BBC’s Panorama: I Helped My Daughter To Die programme during February.