A MUM collapsed and died just hours after taking her daily dose of methadone, an inquest heard.

Kellie Pounder, 38, fell off the end of the bed in the early hours of March 19 as she complained of breathing difficulty.

Her friend, David Ashley, who she was living with in Humphrey Street, Brierfield, called an ambulance but paramedics were unable to save her.

Kellie, who had previous drug and alcohol addictions, had made attempts to quit her habits but she had gone out in Burnley on March 17 and didn’t come back that night.

Mr Ashley said: “I had gone out looking for her and found her walking towards Brierfield at about 5am. Her eyes looked like she had taken something but she denied it.”

Dr Walid Salman, a consultant pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination, said traces of alcohol, amphetamines and heroin were found in Miss Pounder’s system, along with a ‘significant’ amount of methadone.

Mr Ashley said Miss Pounder, who suffered from asthma, was struggling with her breathing throughout Monday.

She was on 25mls of methadone a day from the chemist and at 9.30pm they had walked to the chemist to take it on site.

After returning home, Miss Pounder said she had felt better before going to bed, but Mr Ashley was woken by her shouting for him at around 1.30am.

He said: “She was having difficulty breathing so I went to call an ambulance. As soon as they answered, she keeled off. She was on the edge of the bed and had fallen on to the floor.

“She was lying on the floor and they asked me to check if she was breathing out, but she never did breathe out.”

The coroner, Mark Williams, recorded a verdict of accidental death.