NON-DRINKER Dorothy Henry developed sclerosis of the liver which ultimately contributed to her death.

An inquest heard that since being forced to retire through ill-health, Mrs Henry had received extensive treatment for a blood disorder.

She had undergone surgery to remove her enlarged spleen so that another surgical procedure could be carried out and had been housebound and unable to do anything for herself.

Her husband, James Henry, of Rhodes Avenue, Blackburn, asked why the liver problem had not been detected sooner and asked whether the symptoms of the blood disorder, myelo-proliferate disorder, had masked its existence.

Consultant haematologist Dr David Newsome said that in the time he had treated Mrs Henry there had been nothing to alert him to the sclerosis.

Dr Richard Prescott gave the cause of death as gastro-intestinal haemorrhage, sclerosis of the liver and myelo-proliferate disorder which deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton recorded as a natural cause of death.