A MOTHER who didn’t want to go to hospital after taking drugs died from a heroin overdose, an inquest heard.

Rachel Joanne Ardron began feeling ill after she injected heroin in her home on March 21 of this year, but refused to go to hospital out of fear of losing her children to social services.

The 38-year-old, who was looking after two of her children at the time, was eventually convinced to seek medical help and an ambulance was called. She died in Royal Blackburn Hospital a number of hours later.

Medical records provided showed Mrs Ardron, of Holden Street, Clitheroe, had heroin and crack cocaine in her system and had a large abscess on her right upper leg, which had been causing her large amounts of pain.

Her friend of over 10 years, Stuart Cadliffe, said when he saw Mrs Ardron on the morning of her death she was in a ‘really bad way.’

He said: “She wasn’t well in the morning and really didn’t look great.

"She was lying in bed and you could tell she was in a lot of pain. She didn’t want to go to hospital though, she was afraid social services might take the children away.

“I had some suspicions that she was taking drugs but I didn’t realise that it was to this extent.”

The inquest heard how Mr Cadliffe had helped Mrs Ardron settle in Clitheroe when she moved there from Scarborough following the break-up of her marriage.

But Mrs Ardron’s husband appeared back on the scene and the pair started to take drugs together.

On the morning of her death, Mrs Ardron’s husband had left the house to go to Blackburn and returned a while later.

Mr Cadliffe said: “I had been out in the morning but popped in to check in on her when I got back.

“I was asked to take the children into the front room while the two of them were in the bedroom together with the door closed.

"A short while later he came out carrying her and put her on the sofa, she looked terrible and I told her she needed an ambulance. It took us a while to convince her.”

The inquest had heard that Mrs Ardron was so reluctant to go to hospital as she believed when the authorities found out about her drug use, her children would be taken away by social services.

Mrs Ardron’s husband was arrested and questioned by police before being released with no charge.

Coroner Richard Taylor said: “Rachel was troubled and she had a bad habit that she had fallen back into.

“She knew it was wrong, she was worried about her children. The very last place she wanted to go was the hospital. I will record a conclusion of a drug-related death in this case.”