A woman, who was voted mother of the year in recognition of her efforts to save her daughter who had cancer, has been cleared of murdering her husband after stabbing him in the heart.

A jury at Newcastle crown court found Helena Atay, known as Karine, not guilty of the more serious charge but convicted her of manslaughter on the grounds of lack of intent, following a trial which lasted more than four weeks.

She could not remember the fatal attack on her 45-year-old husband Atakan, a Turkish-born businessman, at the family home in Birtley, Gateshead, last October.

It was alleged the couple had a row about her wanting to leave the house to get more wine, and she picked up a 12cm kitchen knife.

The 42-year-old plunged it into his chest, just below a tattoo which read Sophie My Endless Love, a tribute to their two-year-old who died from the childhood cancer neuroblastoma in 2010.

Atay won the Chronicle newspaper’s Mum of the Year contest in honour of her efforts to raise £500,000 to pay for pioneering treatment for Sophie in the US.

News of her appeal reached TV producer Simon Cowell who pledged up to £100,000, but Sophie was too unwell to benefit from the fundraising and did not have the treatment.

Giving evidence in the trial, Atay said she had been drinking wine on the night her husband was killed, and that she had planned to go out to buy another bottle.

She told the jury her husband attacked her before she could leave the house, and that she could not remember stabbing him.

Atay had previously been caught drink-driving and had been arrested for biting a nightclub doorman.

She told the court her drinking got worse after the death of her daughter and she had sought help for it.

She told police following her arrest that her husband was controlling and had subjected her to years of physical and verbal aggression.

Atay is to be sentenced for manslaughter.