A 40-YEAR-OLD woman who died from a heroin overdose was found slumped on her friend’s kitchen floor with a syringe in her hand.

Blackburn woman Paula Marie Nicholson, who had first started using drugs at the age of 13, was found on the morning of July 8 on her friend’s kitchen floor in Accrington.

An inquest into her death heard how Ms Nicholson had recently self-discharged from hospital and found herself homeless, leaning on friends to give her somewhere to stay as she got back on her feet.

At the time of her death, Ms Nicholson had been sleeping on her friend Caroline Pearson’s sofa, who lives on Beech Street in Accrington.

In a statement read out at the Preston Coroners Court Inquest by area coroner Richard Taylor, Ms Pearson said that her partner had bumped into Ms Nicholson in Accrington town centre on July 4, and she told him she was homeless.

Mr Taylor said: “She was told that she could go and stay with the couple for a short time.

“On Monday the 8th, the three had been out in Accrington and returned back to the address on Beech Street at around 3am. Ms Nicholson had not seemed unwell ‘but was a bit chesty.’”

At around 5am Ms Pearson and her partner went upstairs to bed, leaving Ms Nicholson on the sofa.

The pair didn’t stir again until 10am when there was a knock at the front door - it was at this stage that they went downstairs and noticed that the kitchen door was open.

Mr Taylor said: “They found Ms Nicholson in the kitchen slumped on the floor, face down and it was quite clear that she had passed away.”

Drug paraphernalia was found around her body, and a syringe could still be seen in her hand. It was also heard that Ms Nicholson still had the hospital cannula in her arm. The police were called and officers confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. A toxicology report found that the levels of morphine, which was heroin, found in her system were in the ranges encountered in fatalities even in chronic and therefore tolerant users.

Mr Taylor added: “There was also some methadone found in her system, but in the range encountered in therapeutic use.

“There is also alcohol in her system and some cocaine. The cause of death in this case was drug toxicity.”

A statement given to the coroner from Natasha Burton, Ms Nicholson’s sister, described her as a drug addict who had first taken drugs at the age of 13.

She said: “She had good times when she was off drugs, but she had struggled to cope.”