This 84-year old woman died on the day she was being moved out of her care home so the property could be sold to private bidders.

Edna Henshall had planned to spend her final years in comfort and happiness with her friends around her.

Instead, her grieving family say she spent her last days suffering panic attacks after she was given notice to quit Dresden House in Medina Villas, Hove.

She was one of 33 elderly women who were told the home where they had planned to spend the rest of their lives was to be sold off.

The Argus reported in January how the residents were given just 11 weeks to quit Dresden House, leaving many of them contemplating a future with no home.

Mrs Henshall suffered a suspected stroke on Monday - the day she was being moved to Lindfield care home in Worthing which her family finally found for her after weeks of anxiety and chasing around to find her somewhere to live.

She was found by nurses on the floor of her modest apartment at Dresden House at about 8am.

Mrs Henshall died four hours later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Her son Ian Henshall blamed her death on the decision to close Dresden House.

Trustees of the Dresden House Trust, the charitable organisation which runs the care home, said they had to sell the property because they could not afford the refurbishments needed to keep it open.

The £478-a-week care home, valued at about £7 million, made a loss in 2004. Trustees blamed increasing costs of maintaining buildings and meeting environmental standards, meaning the charity would have to reduce its outgoings and look at other avenues to carry on its charitable work.

Mr Henshall said his mother would still be alive today if the house was to stay open.

He said: "I think if Dresden House had not decided to close and evict its residents my mother would still be here."

Mrs Henshall had been prone to panic attacks during her life but her family say she was in good health and good spirits prior to the announcement being made about Dresden House's closure.

The family said she had been looking to spend many years ahead of her in the home and to spending the summer in the city.

She had moved to Dresden House in October from Carlisle. The Dresden House Trust had wanted to move to Hangleton after losses in 2004 but the proposal fell through and in May, half the home, in Albany Villas, was closed down. Managers increasingly saw the care home, which had been open for 96 years, as unviable.

Mrs Henshall's family say her panic attacks returned when she was told the care home was going to close.

Mr Henshall said: "My mother had been suffering from panic attacks as she anticipated the move and it is likely the heightened blood pressure caused by the panic attacks caused the stroke. She had not previously had a stroke.

"She believed her future at Dresden House was secure for at least a year and never got over the shock of having to move just after she had settled in."

Hove MP Celia Barlow, who has offered support to the residents of Dresden House, said: "All my sympathies are with the relatives of Mrs Henshall at this time."

Ms Barlow said the needs of residents should have been foremost in any decision over the home's closure and said a change in the law was needed to prevent closures such as this happening again.

Mr Henshall has asked why more inquiries were not made about the potential effect the home's closure could have on its elderly residents.

All three trustees were unavailable for comment yesterday.