A woman from Farnworth who had 'on and off' substance abuse issues died after being found unresponsive at home.

Julie Gilligan was aged 58 when she died on May 9 this year at Royal Bolton Hospital.

An inquest into her death at Bolton Coroners' Court on Tuesday, October 3, heard that Ms Gilligan had been at her home on Long Causeway, Farnworth, with her partner, Neil Entwistle, when she collapsed.

In a statement Mr Entwistle  said how he and Ms Gilligan had been together for 15 years at the time of her death, and that she was an 'on and off' user of heroin and crack cocaine.

Mr Entwistle told the inquest how, around two years ago, he had got her to "stop injecting" but that she was still using heroin and crack cocaine.

On the morning of May 9 this year, he went downstairs to make breakfast when he "heard a thud" upstairs. He found Ms Gilligan upstairs on the floor - she asked him for "help".

After a brief conversation, she went limp and he called paramedics, who took her to Royal Bolton Hospital.

Dr Syed Bakhari, a doctor on the A&E ward at the hospital, stated how she underwent a CT scan and was found to have a "catastrophic large intracranial bleed" on her brain.

He said: "The consultant said the bleed was too large for surgical intervention to take place."

Ms Gilligan was pronounced dead at around 10pm that day.

Dr Ravindra Sawant, a pathologist at Royal Bolton Hospital, gave Ms Gilligan's cause of death as a spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage, caused by cocaine abuse and alcohol-induced cirrhosis of the liver.

Concluding, Coroner Stephen Teasdale said: "She had a history of illicit drug use and alcohol dependency syndrome.

"The reason behind her death is because of her lifestyle. It was what dominated her life and ended it."

He added: "On May 9 this year, the deceased collapsed at her home address. She was taken to Royal Bolton Hospital, where a CT scan showed she suffered an unsurvivable, large intracranial haemorrhage.

"The deceased died later that day. I offer my condolences to the family for the loss of a daughter and the loss of a sister."

He determined Ms Gilligan's death as having been drug and alcohol related.