A mother drowned her seven-year-old son before taking her own life after becoming terrified she would die from ‘likely curable’ cancer, an inquest heard.

Yulia Gokcedag, 35, was found hanged with her son Timur in the bath at their former home in Tower Hamlets, east London, on August 13.

She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in January and had been given a 97% chance of surviving by doctors, but she believed she would be part of the 3% who did not.

Poplar Coroners’ Court heard she was receiving therapy over her ‘extreme fear’ of dying and was booked in for surgery the week after her death following the end of chemotherapy.

Mrs Gokcedag’s husband Mehmet told the court: ‘She was a good mother.

‘She loved our son and it is very unimaginable why and how she could do this, the child that came out of her, why would she take his life?’

Ahead of the coroner’s determinations, Mr Gokcedag said he thought his wife was afraid of Timur later taking his own life if she died by suicide.

He said: ‘She feared for what Timur would have in the future, that’s why she decided to save him now.’

The inquest heard Mrs Gokcedag had been diagnosed with breast cancer in January and underwent chemotherapy.

Professor Paul Ellis, an oncologist, told the inquest that the 35-year-old had finished her course and had been scheduled for surgery the week after her death.

He said: ‘On that day, August 11, I thought Yulia had done brilliantly, I could see her and her mum were delighted with how well she had done.

‘I had every expectation that she would be turning up for surgery next week.’

Dr Mark Flynn, a clinical psychologist, said Mrs Gokcedag had severe anxiety and a ‘huge amount of self-recrimination about her possible responsibility for the diagnosis and the course of her treatment’.

Professor Amanda Ramirez, a psychiatrist, told the inquest Mrs Gokcedag suffered from acute and severe anxiety, insomnia and a strong fear of dying from cancer.

She added: ‘She would describe palpitations, chest pains, difficulty sleeping. Her anxiety was very hard to bear.’

The inquest heard after Mrs Gokcedag left the family home in Wimbledon with Timur, no activity was detected on either of their phones after 1.50pm on August 12.

After her death, her phone and laptop were examined as part of the investigation and showed she had searched suicide on the internet at least once a day since April.

Senior Coroner Mary Hassell determined that Timur was unlawfully killed and that his mother’s death was a suicide.

Ms Hassell said she was not allowed to assign criminal culpability or blame on to a named person.

Explaining she could only outline the facts, she said: ‘I am entirely satisfied that he was drowned by his mum.

‘No other person was seen entering the property, there were no signs of a disturbance, there were no signs of forced entry.

‘The series of events seems clear to me that Yulia drowned Timur and then hanged herself.’

Determining they had both died on August 12, she added: ‘Her anxiety was so extreme and so very misdirected and misjudged, she appears in her own mind to have thought it better to take Timur with her.’

Ms Hassell added she was ‘very, very likely to have been cured’ of the cancer.

She continued: ‘There is a complete lack of logic to fear death from cancer and to take one’s own life. She was not acting logically.

‘She was better at hiding than those around her were at discovering the truth.’

Ms Hassell ended the inquest by expressing her condolences to the family, telling them she had ‘rarely’ seen such a tragedy.

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