Children left alone with the body of their father for almost 24 hours after his sudden death

Pearl and Iris Daykin were found in bed with their father Chris, who died unexpectedly of a heart failure

Helen Daykin is raising awareness to ensure schools enquire further when students don't arrive at school (Sreengrab/BBC)

A pair of young sisters were left alone with their father's body for almost 24 hours after he suddenly died at their family home in Yorkshire.

Pearl Daykin, four, and Iris, two, were found in bed with their father Chris, who passed away after suffering from heart failure.

Their mother, Helen Daykin, is now calling on schools to make extra checks when students do not turn up.

Pearl's school had called Mr Daykin’s number but did not phone her after he failed to pick up.

Ms Daykin was away on a work trip when she was unable to get through to her husband.

Her mother drove to the house in the evening but could not get in as the door was locked.

She called the police after noticing the windows were dark and milk had been left outside and officers knocked down the door after they arrived.

It was then that they discovered the children.

Ms Daykin said she believed that on some level, her eldest daughter, Pearl, had understood that Mr Daykin had died.

"They spent the whole day upstairs, they didn't come down at all," she said. "They were hungry. They played with all my shoes and makeup, but they didn't venture further in the house."

She added that after failing to wake up their father in the morning, her daughter's had found indigestion tablets and had put them in his mouth to “make him better”.

Backed by the Good Grief Trust charity, she has now launched a campaign to tackle the issue, which has been.

Calling on schools to try second and third contact numbers if they cannot get through to the first, she said they should visit people's homes if they fail to get through.

"A parent dies in this country every 22 minutes, and that could be one of those parents that are by themselves, nobody knows they're by themselves with the children," the Good Grief Trust’s founder, Linda Magistris, told the BBC.