MIRIAM Lewis’ life was torn apart when her daughter died.

Natalie Lewis-Hoyle was just 28.

She was pretty, intelligent and loved and her life ended too soon.

Natalie was found unconscious at her home in Beeches Road, Heybridge, by her mother.

Miriam saw her hanging in her room.

An inquest into her death recorded an open verdict but heard Natalie, who was also the daughter Commons Deputy Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, had been in a troubled relationship.

Miriam admits she is still struggling to come to terms with her daughter’s sudden and terrible death but she is determined some good to come from the tragedy.

Miriam, a former leader of Maldon District Council, wants to help those trapped in bad relationships.

She said Natalie had been in a toxic relationship in the months before she died and she believes it contributed to her death.

Now, with the help of graphic design students at Plume Academy in Maldon, she is building a signposting site called Chat with Nat.

It aims to point people in the right direction for advice and information about “gas-lighting” – manipulation by psychological means.

Miriam said: “We’re in early stages at the moment, my brain is feeling like complete mush.

“It’s a strange thing, you start to think about something and your head turns into mush and you can’t then think about what you were just going through.

“Nat had been in this horrible relationship and it had an effect on all the family.

“It’s difficult for a family to know where to get support for psychological domestic abuse.

“And that’s the problem, it’s like putting your hand around some fog.

“There needs to be some kind of framework to recognise what’s happening.

“Victims don’t often realise they are trapped in this relationship until it’s far too late.

“It’s a long, slow process, and it can be a case where it’ll really get you down and you’ll get fed up of everything and something nice happens, like a piece of jewellery or a nice meal out, an apology maybe, and then they feel like they have to mend things and make it work.

“After Natalie died I started doing research into this type of relationship to find out how we can brand and package this so that if people are worried about someone in such a relationship they will know what they’re looking for.”

Miriam has been working with mothers Wendy, Heidi and Liz who appeared on the BBC documentary Death on Campus about their children who had committed suicide in 2017.

Liz made contact with Miriam shortly after her appeal to find Natalie’s phone.

They have talked regularly since and held discussions as the group Four Too Many about the impact of losing a child.

Miriam added: “I do not want Natalie’s death to be for nothing.

“I think she had realised and was in the process of breaking up and that is when someone is most vulnerable.

“They’re absolutely drained and need a last bit of energy to pull away from it.

“Sometimes it’s your friends, work mates and chums.

“These are the people that know something’s wrong and they don’t know how to tackle it.

“If I can create something to talk about it, engage with more people, gather experiences, then there will be a pattern of behaviour, a signpost of the warnings to understand the situation so people can learn not to accept their situation but recognise they deserve better respect.

“If more families learn they can be more supportive, it might just stop another Natalie from happening.

“I would never, ever want another mother to feel the way I felt.

“I am not a mother anymore.

“I do have a life but it’s a completely different one I thought it would be.

“I thought I’d see Natalie settle down and maybe become a grandmother, but that’s not going to happen anymore.

“I need a purpose in life and getting Chat with Nat going would help her death to mean something.

“She was too big a personality to just lose.

“I will be taking the most negative thing that has ever happened in my life and getting something good out of it.”