A coroner's decision to record chronic fatigue syndrome as a cause of death has been hailed

as groundbreaking by campaigners.

It is the first time the illness has been given as an official cause of death in the UK.

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley recorded Sophia Mirza's death as caused by "acute renal failures as a result of chronic fatigue syndrome".

Sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) , commonly known as ME - myalgic encephalomyelitis - complain doctors fail to take the illness seriously.

Campaign groups such as Invest in ME and the ME Association say that the coroner's verdict proves the illness is a neurological condition.

Art graduate Sophia, 32, suffered with CFS for six years before she died in November last year.

The condition affects the immune and central nervous system and is characterised by debilitating chronic fatigue.

Her illness meant she became extremely sensitive to light and noise and could only lie in a darkened room in her high-rise flat in the city.

Her mother, Criona Wilson, 63, of Brighton, said: "She lived in solitary confinement for five years.

"The windows in her flat were completely blacked out. She could only lie on her right side day and night and she couldn't stand any sort of noise."

She said a psychiatrist took such a text-book approach to her daughter's illness that he sectioned her in a mental hospital for two weeks.

Mrs Wilson said: "It's treated in this country as a mental illness. Sophie was as sharp as a razor blade and yet they sectioned her."

Evidence given by doctors to the coroner showed Sophia's spinal cord was inflamed, with 75 per cent of the sensory cells showing significant abnormalities, indicating a physical manifestation of CFS.

Dr Charles Shepherd, medical advisor to the ME Association, said: "The neuro-pathologist examined the spinal cord and found inflammation of the nervous system. You can't put that down to psychosis. It's a very important finding. Her symptoms were put down to being all in the mind. That's a very disturbing aspect of this case."

In the Eighties, ME was known derisively as "yuppie flu" for its tendency to be diagnosed in young professionals.

Dr Shepherd said: "It's an illness that's got to be taken seriously and not dismissed as a trivial tired all the time' syndrome."

Sue Waddle, chair of Invest in ME, said the verdict on Sophia could have a positive outcome by encouraging the Government to fund research.

She said: "There isn't any funding for research. Consequently there are many people confined to miserable lives because there is no medical treatment."

Mrs Wilson said: "I would like to think other families won't have to suffer as we have. I would like to think this will make a difference."