The DEATH of a woman with a long history of substance misuse was drug-related, an inquest found.

Lynn Walker, 47, was discovered dead at Countess Road in Bransty, Whitehaven, on September 8 last year.

An inquest into her death held at Cockermouth Coroners’ Court heard Miss Walker lived with her former partner, Alan Fleming, who had been with her on the evening of September 7.

He said Miss Walker slept on the sofa downstairs because she smoked between 80 and 100 cigarettes a day and would get out of breath going upstairs.

Mr Fleming said he had gone upstairs to bed at 9pm to watch TV before going to sleep. He said Miss Walker was ‘fine’ when he left her.

He woke up at 10.20am the following morning and found her unresponsive on the sofa. He phoned for an ambulance and carried out CPR on Miss Walker. Paramedics arrived and confirmed Miss Walker had died.

A statement from the police officer who attended the scene said drug paraphernalia was discovered near Miss Walker.

The inquest heard that Miss Walker had a difficult childhood and didn’t enjoy school. She began drinking at the age of 11. She started taking LSD and ecstasy at the age of 16 then started smoking heroin and crack cocaine.

In the months leading up to her death, she told staff at Recovery Steps that she was smoking heroin.  She was finding it difficult to climb the stairs and was out of breath when talking. She had been admitted to hospital with breathing problems.

A post-mortem report revealed she had a number of drugs in her system including morphine.

The cause of death was given as drug misuse. Robert Cohen, assistant coroner for Cumbria, concluded Miss Walker’s death was drug-related.

The coroner passed on his condolences to Miss Walker’s loved-ones.