News in Your Town Latest from the EDP Listen to the latest weather forecast Enjoy the EDP digital editionDawn Barry was loved on Come Dine With Me for her eccentric personality - but behind her bubbly image, she hid a sadness that led this week to her suicide.For over a decade, she had been seeking celebrity stardom on a string of reality television shows.After appearing on Blind Date and Club Reps the glamorous salon owner from Lancashire finally shot to fame as a contestant on the TV cookery programme in January 2009.Miss Barry, 38, was named on fan sites as the Channel 4 show's ‘best ever contestant’, causing endless amusement after becoming raucous and then suddenly falling asleep.She drew gasps from viewers when she became tipsy on her own competition night and went to bed - leaving one of the other contestants to cook her meal. Tragic: Dawn Barry, who shot to fame on Come Dine With Me, has died at the age of 38 Popular: Miss Barry was a fan favourite thanks to her bubbly personality and unusual behaviour

During the week-long show, Miss Barry collapse at the table with her hair falling into a dish filled with avocado dip, and another night she left a dinner party unannounced after she felt sleepy.The sudden bouts of sleepiness caused some viewers to debate whether she was suffering from narcolepsy. But the beautician had in fact been dealing with alcohol and mental health problems for a number of years and had spent time in rehab.And in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Miss Barry apparently killed herself after a long battle with alcoholism and depression.kim curtains waxhaw ncFriends paid tribute to Miss Barry, describing her as ‘talented’ and the ‘life and soul of a party’.mojave black and brown 72 x 72 fabric shower curtain Reality star: Miss Barry had appeared on a variety of TV programmes before Come Dine With Mebed bath and beyond curtains reina

Drunk: It has emerged that Miss Barry was battling alcohol addiction and mental health problems Lindsay McCann, 27, who worked with Miss Barry for six years, said: ‘She was a very bubbly person and incredibly loveable.‘She had a wonderful character and she enjoyed making people laugh and I have so many good memories of her.‘We have been so shocked by what has happened but she had been poorly for some time. Yesterday was a dreadful day.’ swish curtain track 4mMiss Barry, who owned the Naughty Nails Salon in Preston, was so ill that she had stopped working at the beginning of the year.jenica curtainsAs a result, last week her father Raymond sold her beauty business to her long-standing friend and colleague, Samantha Eastham.Miss Eastham, 30, said: ‘I had known Dawn for 12 years and it was fantastic working with her.‘nautica zachary curtains

Everything about her stood out because she had such a big personality and she would really make you laugh. In her heyday she was a brilliant businesswoman who travelled the world and was incredibly successful.‘She had been poorly since the beginning of the year and she had not really been herself for a long time. It has been very upsetting and sad and we will all miss her.’ Illness: Miss Barry's problems forced her to give up her job as owner of a beauty salonblack curtains travis meeks Meanwhile, her friends also took to social networking site Facebook to pay their respects. Anna Holden wrote: ‘Goodnight and godbless - Lots of love - don’t terrorise the old people up there!’Another friend, Delicia Mick Day, said: 'RIP Dawn, thoughts with the family.’In April 2009, Miss Barry hit the headlines after she was convicted of drink-driving. She was three and a half times over the drink drive limit when she ploughed her Audi into two parked cars outside a nursery yards from her home.

She was handed an eight-week suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for five years. She also had a previous drink-driving conviction dating back to 2000.At the time her solicitor Barry David Scully said she was suffering from alcohol and mental health problems and her family were ‘concerned for her emotional well-being.’In June 2011, her former partner Carl Anthony Britton, 40, was spared jail for domestic abuse. A court heard he hit Miss Barry in the face during a drinking session, gashing her forehead.A police spokesman confirmed that Miss Barry had been taken to the Royal Preston Hospital at around 5am on October 1 and died later the same day. Her death is not being treated as suspicious.A gambling addict mum who brutally murdered her 80-year-old Good Samaritan 'uncle' was today jailed for life - and told she will have to serve at least 19 years. Evil Susan Warne, 41, even went gambling just hours after she callously strangled lifelong bachelor John Proctor for just £300 in his own home in Leiston, Suffolk, in June.

Warne, also of Leiston, admitted murdering Mr Proctor at Ipswich Crown Court on October 16. The popular pensioner - a well-known character in the town - was found dead at the foot of his stairs on June 15. Post-mortem tests showed he had died from compression of the neck two days earlier. Today the court heard Warne had a serious gambling habit and had become addicted to playing bingo on a national newspaper's online bingo site. The wicked mother-of-two had gone to Mr Proctor's home on June 13. Read more: First picture of Oscar Pistorius since release from jail shows killer looking gaunt and pale They were not related by blood but she had always known him as her 'uncle'. Warne told Mr Proctor that her husband Darren had kicked her out and she needed a place to stay, knowing that he kept cash in his house. The big-hearted pensioner, a friend of the cold-blooded killer's family, took pity on her and showed her to her room. But Warne repaid Mr Proctor's kindness by shoving him down the stairs and strangling him with a curtain cord, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

She then stabbed him in one side of the neck with a knife she found in the home before knifing him again in the other side of his neck to stop him making "stupid" gurgling noises. Warne then plundered about £300 as Mr Proctor lay dying and deposited the money in her account in three separate transactions. Read more: Taxi boss who killed estranged wife's boyfriend by running him over FIVE times jailed for life The supermarket cleaner then went gambling in an amusement arcade in nearby Lowestoft just hours after killing the OAP before calmly sitting down to dinner with her husband and son. Murder squad detectives quickly made Warne their chief suspect and arrested her on June 16. She was charged with murder three days later. Warne had left a suicide note for her husband and children after the discovery of Mr Proctor's body, claiming that she "never meant what had happened", the court heard. Steven Dyble, defending, said this showed "considerable remorse" and demonstrated that Warne "didn't want to come to terms with enormity of the act she had committed".

Judge David Goodin gave her a minimum prison sentence of 24 years, reduced by four years for her guilty plea. Read more: Shamed police sergeant sacked for kicking handcuffed man in the face twice Warne has already spent 147 says in custody. So she will have to spend at least 19 years 218 days behind bars before she will be eligible to apply for release on licence. Warne had also faced charges of stealing £940 from her father Norman Thompson, 76, in a burglary on May 1 and trying to rob a woman of 90 in Walberswick three days before murdering Mr Proctor. But both charges were dropped as she was accused of murder. Warne's devastated family today released a statement through Suffolk Police: "The last five months has been a very traumatic time for us all. "Finding out that a member of your family has been murdered is something you never think you will have to cope with in your lifetime, but then finding out it is a close member of your own family that is responsible is an unbearable situation to deal with.

"John was a well-known character, who could always make you laugh with his unique sense of humour. "He was also a very loving and kind uncle who was always there for us. "It has been difficult for our family to hear rumours that he was in some way responsible for what happened to him. "John's death was a tragic result of what a gambling addiction can do to a person and the devastation it causes the people around them. Read more: 'I don't know how he lived': Witness tells of bloodbath after man's 'hand cut off' in street attack "We find it very sad that Susan was unable to talk to us about her gambling addiction or seek help. "We believe gambling is a taboo subject and needs more awareness and help for those whose gambling may be affecting their lives." Warne had worked as a cleaner at Tesco stores in Saxmundham and Southwold after ill health put an end to her job as a self-employed gardener. Although not related by blood, Warne's mother and Mr Proctor were evacuees during the Second World War and moved to Leiston where they were brought up together and became firm friends.

Mr Proctor had worked for the Cakes and Ale Holiday Park in Theberton as a general groundsman and maintenance man. He was still working there for three days a week even at the age of 80. Warne's shattered father, Norman Thompson, has said his daughter's life crumbled after she was forced to stop working as a gardener and she became addicted to gambling. Mr Thompson, of Leiston, told the East Anglian Daily Times : "I blame myself in a way because I feel I could have helped her more. "I did all I could for her. "I just didn't know how bad her problems were. "She loved her gardening work and she was happy with it. "They couldn't find out what it was [that was wrong with her] and then she had a bad shoulder and couldn't work for a while. "I think she must have been hard up for money or she wouldn't have started gambling." He said Warne's husband Darren had taken out a loan in a bid to help his gambling-crazed wife. "About two years ago she just said she had got in trouble with gambling on the internet. "

She seemed to be worried, but she doesn't say much," said Mr Thompson. "A couple of years ago she stopped giving presents at Christmas and I knew there was something wrong." He said Warne stole money from him four or five weeks before she killed her 'uncle'. "I had a break-in and had money taken out of a drawer. "She must have been desperate to do that," said Mr Thompson. "She had been gardening with me the day before and apparently had lost her key and was looking for it in the garden, but that was just an excuse." Mr Proctor's shocked family paid a poignant tribute to the murdered OAP: "John Proctor, also known as JP, moved to Leiston as a toddler. "He was a much-loved uncle and had been a constant presence in our lives. "The word 'elderly' certainly didn't apply to JP and we used to joke that he would outlive us all. "He was a very independent person and took much pride in looking after his home and garden. "He was the life and soul of the party. "He will be missed by us all leaving a hole in our hearts that can never be filled."