A French woman who made headlines around the world, due to her battle with a disfiguring facial tumour, has been found dead at her home. Mother-of-three Chantal Sébire suffered excruciating pain from a rare inoperable cancer in her sinuses. She appealed for the legal right to end her own life.

Earlier this week a court in Dijon, in eastern France, rejected the 52-year-old former schoolteacher's request to go to her "death with dignity".

"It's clear that, even though France is a democratic society, that neither fraternity nor equality truly exist as it claims, because when someone asks in a humane and dignified way to be allowed to take her leave with love, then her wish is denied because of the law."

The practice of euthanasia is forbidden by French law unlike in neighbouring European countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands or Switzerland.

Doctors say the cause of Chantal Sébire's death is not yet known.