An office worker who was sacked while seriously ill in hospital has won £2,000 compensation at an employment tribunal.

Janet French, 59, successfully claimed she was unfairly dismissed after her boss failed to officially discuss her medical condition with her or her doctors before deciding to fire her.

Her former employer, Sayers Common finance company The Cadmus Organisation, denied treating her unfairly.

Mrs French, of Kingston Lane, Southwick, told a tribunal she was an administrator for five years before she was sacked in July last year while in hospital being treated for phaeochromocytoma, a potentially life-threatening condition.

She said the shock and upset of receiving the letter sacking her because of the length of time she had been off sick meant she suffered a relapse.

She told the tribunal: "My blood pressure completely went out of control. It went dangerously high.

"I feel very strongly that I have been unfairly dismissed. At the time of my dismissal the company did not have sufficient information and I had emphasised that I had every intention of returning."

She spent four months receiving treatment at hospitals in Brighton and London.

Mrs French said she had been unable to find a new job and is being forced to sell her home.

Managing director Howard Matthews told the Brighton hearing he was not a heartless, rogue employer and had bent over backwards trying to accommodate Mrs French's problems with her health and that of her children.

He said his company employed only three people and Mrs French's job was vitally important. The business could not function effectively without an office administrator.

He had tried to contact the hospital to find out when she would be well enough to return to work.

He said: "We felt we had no choice but to recruit a replacement and therefore reluctantly invoked Mrs French's contract."

Michael Davey, the chairman of the tribunal, said the compensation awarded could not be any higher because Mrs French had been receiving incapacity benefit since she was discharged from hospital, which meant she was not currently fit to return to work.

He said the tribunal had sympathy with both Mrs French and Mr Matthews.