Tributes have been paid to twin brothers who were found dead together days after Christmas.

The bodies of Billy and Joe Smith, 32, who appeared in Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series in 2014, were discovered on a country lane in rural Kent on Saturday. Police are not treating the incident near Sevenoaks as suspicious.

Joe, a father of two, had recently been diagnosed with cancer, the Daily Mirror reported, and the news had come as a blow to his brother. A Facebook page set up in their memory has more than 3,000 followers, and hundreds of people have posted personal tributes to the pair.

Phoebe Charleen Smith, the twins’ cousin, told PA Media: “They were perfect, we had been brought up all our lives together ... more like brothers and sister. They are loved dearly and missed so much.”

Paddy Doherty, one of the stars of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, posted a video tribute on Facebook, saying the death of the “two good-looking boys” was a “terrible tragedy”.

Billy Smith’s partner, Kristina Delaney, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, wrote that she had been looking forward to New Year’s Eve celebrations they had planned in central London. “You always see stuff like this but you just never think it’ll happen to you,” she added.

Among other posts on Facebook by friends, family and others, one user wrote on Sunday: “Please everyone keep the family of these twin brothers in prayer … Depression is rife among our folki.”

Kent police said they were called at 11.34am on Saturday after the bodies of two men in their 30s were found in Dibden Lane, Sevenoaks.

The force said the incident was not being treated as suspicious and officers were compiling a report for the coroner.

A policy document published this year by the Traveller Movement stated that research had confirmed there was a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression among Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities compared with the settled populations in England.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.