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A doctor who spent 40 years helping her parents run the family farm has learned they have left their £1.5million estate to the RSPCA.
Dr Christine Gill is taking legal action to challenge the will, which leaves the mother-of-one without a penny.
On Wednesday she told how she started work at the age of 13, driving tractors and picking potatoes.
After leaving for university, Dr Gill would return at weekends and during holidays to help.
She and her husband, Andrew, even bought an adjoining property in 1986 near the village of Potto, in North Yorkshire.
When her father, John, died in 1999, she had to look after her mother, Joyce, who suffered from a range of phobias and would not leave the house.
Mr Gill had left everything to his wife, and Dr Gill did not take up the issue with her mother.
She said: 'I felt that parents had a right to enjoy their property without children snapping at their heels. I had no reason to suppose I would not inherit the property eventually.'
Only days after her mother's death, in August last year, the contents of her will were discovered.
Not only had the farm been left to someone else, it had been left to the RSPCA – a charity that Dr Gill had never heard either of her parents express any support for.
The 56-year-old said: 'My parents never wrote a cheque to the RSPCA.
'My father used to allow the local hunt to send their dogs on to their farmland. My mother used to criticise the RSPCA for their stance against hunting.'
Neighbours and contractors who have worked on the farm over the past 20 years also expressed their shock at the bequest. Steve Dawson, who farms nearby, said: 'She must have been devastated when she found out. It must be terrible, especially with the increase in land values in the past 12 months.'
An RSPCA spokeswoman confirmed it had been bequeathed a 'very generous' legacy.
She added: 'The RSPCA is aware of the claim by Mrs Gill's daughter. The charity is unable to comment on the case but hopes that it can be resolved without the need for legal proceedings.'
This was on the local news last night and there's a bit of a debate over whether she should be entitled to the money or not. I can understand her anger to an extent, but she did come across as a bit of a gold digger when she was interviewed.
It's not difficult to see why she's surprised and hacked off at the decision - if nothing else it's a huge slap in the face from a mother she apparently cared for.
On the other hand, inheritance is a dodgy area. There's the undercurrent of "waiting for people to die" in it.
Without knowing the details, it sounds like she's been shat on.
Very strange that she never heard them mention the RSPCA, apart from when they criticised it. Would suggest she either didn't really know them that well, or she has indeed been shat on from on high.
Daughter cut out of £1.5m will 
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