Cancer victim Elizabeth Day killed herself only months after being diagnosed with the disease.

The retired coil-winding technician had become de- pressed after learning she had ovarian cancer in January, an inquest was told.

Mrs Day, 58, of Little Coxwell, near Faringdon, had been suffering for three months when she gassed herself in her car after leaving her home early on April 3.

Her body was discovered by passer-by Nicola Jane Young when she took her dogs for a walk.

Mrs Young, of Longcot Road, Fernham, told Oxfordshire Coroner's Court yesterday that she had noticed Mrs Day's red Volkswagen Polo parked in Long Lane in Faringdon. She added: "At first I thought it was abandoned, but then I saw smoke. I went to the driver's door and opened it and saw the body of a woman."

Mrs Young said she turned the engine off and took Mrs Day's pulse before using a mobile phone she found in the car to call the police.

She also found two notes, one of which was addressed to the dead woman's husband Maurice Day.

Mr Day, a farm manager, said that though his wife often seemed to be in severe pain because of her illness, she always appeared upbeat and had never talked of ending her life.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict that Mrs Day had taken her own life.