Suffering from osteoporosis and Huntington’s Disease, using a zimmer indoors and a wheelchair outside, Mrs Brenda Doreen Jones (aged 70) of 59, College Court, Neyland, died from an overdose of the drug amitriptylene, an inquest was told yesterday (Thursday).

Before he recorded a verdict of death from self-administered drug poisoning, Deputy Pembrokeshire Coroner Mark Layton, heard that Mrs Jones, former landlady of The Coburg Hotel in Neyland, had been ill for 27 years and her ailments seriously affected her mobility.

She would fall about three times a week, said Coroner’s Officer Jeremy Davies. She would self-administer her tablets which were kept in the living room, but her liquid medication would be measured out by her second husband Terry or her daughter, Mrs Nash.

On June 18th her husband had retired to bed and heard his wife coming up on the stairlift. He heard a scream and found that his wife had got off the lift on the stairs and could not get up onto the landing.

Because of his own illness he was unable to pull her up and, while he was back in the bedroom wondering what to do, he heard another scream and a bumping sound and found Mrs Jones had fallen head first down onto the half-landing where she lay unconscious.

Paramedics found she was dead. A post mortem revealed a heart condition and asthma and a toxicity test showed a level of amitriptylene consistent with fatality.