A MOTHER with a history of cocaine use told her sister “I’ve let the family down too much” before hanging herself.

Wendy Field was found beside suicide notes at her home in Roman Way, Bicester, an inquest in Oxford heard on Thursday.

On the evening before her death on April 5, the 30-year-old asked her sister Claire to look after her young daughter while she went to pay a childminder.

She promised to be away for about an hour but did not return that night.

She was found dead the next morning.

The inquest at Old County Hall heard a post-mortem examination found evidence of past use of cocaine.

Claire Field told the coroner her sister had taken an attempted overdose before, which she said a nurse described as “a cry for help”.

A text message sent by Wendy to Claire shortly before her death read: “Just let the family know I love them. I’ve let the family down too much and there’s no going back.”

In a statement, Miss Field’s GP said she had suffered from depression in June 2006 and was noted to have a cocaine dependency in December 2007.

He said there were concerns about her drug use during her pregnancy in 2007.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said Miss Field had taken her own life and referred to the suicide notes found at the scene.

He said: “They (the notes), together with the circumstances, make it quite clear she had formed the intention of taking her own life and put that intention into effect.”