Parents are not meant to outlive their offspring.

But it was that tragedy former ITN newsreader Carol Barnes had to face when her own daughter Clare died aged 24 in a skydiving accident in Australia four years ago.

As Ms Barnes, 63, fights for her life at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, there is speculation her collapse on Sunday from a stroke was the result of a broken heart.

She would often be the first to admit in interviews that the tragedy left her heartbroken and ridden with grief.

Speaking to The Argus in a moving interview soon after her daughter's death she said: "I still feel I'm living in a nightmare.

"The realisation hasn't really sunk in yet and I don't know if it ever will.

"The days and weeks after the news were like a hazy dream - nothing seemed real. I just can't think of her as dead."

The newsreader, who lives at Brighton Marina, received the news of her daughter's death in a phone call from Clare's boyfriend, sky-dive instructor Chris Mac- Dougall, who had jumped with her.

He told how Clare had "fought to the end" in a desperate struggle to save herself.

Ms Barnes told us: "After I put the receiver down it hit me. I ran around the house crying, screaming and banging walls."

In The Argus interview in 2004, Ms Barnes said one of her greatest regrets was she would never be a grandmother to Clare's children and revealed she had made a shrine to her in her flat.

Former colleague Ed Mitchell, who made a documentary with Ms Barnes about his struggle with alcoholism, said: "There is a whole host of factors and she was deeply deeply upset by the loss of her daughter.

"I think it is possible for somebody to be affected by the loss of someone and that it could affect their health.

"At the age of 63 she seemed so fit and healthy and she seemed the most unlikely of persons to fall ill because she seemed so strong."

Mr Mitchell added he had tried to see Ms Barnes but only close family were allowed at the hospital.

He said: "Because she was so kind to me it was the least I could do to offer something back."

Ms Barnes lost her job as a magistrate in 2005 after she was convicted of drink driving. At the time she denied the incident had anything to do with her grief.

Comedy actress Carol Cleveland, of Monty Python's Flying Circus, said the newsreader had started drinking heavily following her daughter's death but that since she had known her she had been getting better coping with her grief.

She said: "I thought because time had gone on her appearance and her personality had become so much better.

"I met her soon after her daughter died and she was in a terrible state and was drinking heavily.

"But during the last year whenever I saw her she had been much happier and on better form."

Mark Webster, a close friend and colleague at ITN, said: "After the heartbreaking death of her daughter Clare, I don't think she has ever fully recovered."

It is understood her son James, from her marriage to ITN cameraman Nigel Thomson, is keeping a bedside vigil.

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