She was a fit and healthy gym goer but then a car crash led her down a tragic path into addiction
A woman lost her home and her life after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers, an inquest heard.
Joanne Blackburn and her sister Sharon had taken over caring for their younger brother after their mum died in 2001. In 2005 Joanne, a legal secretary, moved to London and since around 2014 her relationship with her sister had become "distant".
Joanne, from Preston, had always been known to be physically fit and healthy, going to the gym most days, but after a car accident in 2012 she developed a dependence on painkillers including dihydrocodeine. Her addiction became so severe that her GP surgery held several meetings in which they told pharmacies and the 111 service not to issue emergency prescriptions due to her attempting to obtain them early.
READ MORE: Police boss 'attempted to change facts' after victimising disabled officer
An inquest held today (September 16) at Preston Coroner's Court heard that Joanne's mobility worsened and when she missed several rent payments on her house in Leyland she moved in with her next-door neighbour Les Parkinson. She developed COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and Les would often find her "in a coma-like state" from taking painkillers.
"Jo would struggle to walk upstairs," Les said in a statement. "She would often fall into a very deep sleep and she could be like that for 12 to 18 hours. "I knew she was obtaining extra medication but nobody came to my address.
"Sometimes I would drive her to addresses where I suspected she was getting extra but I only did that because of how much pain she was in."
On Thursday April 18 Les drove Jo to the hairdressers and to Tesco and that night he went to bed at around 2am. The following day he got up to find Jo, 48, asleep on the settee, with a onesie covering her face, which he said wasn't unusual.
On the morning of April 20 Les got up and was "concerned" to see that Jo hadn't eaten the sandwich left for her by her carer the day before. When he pulled back the onesie he discovered she wasn't breathing and when paramedics arrived they pronounced her dead.
After Jo's death, sister Sharon took her possessions and, after looking through her phone, passed on information to the police regarding her suspicions that she was buying illicit drugs. Detectives later arrested and interviewed a woman with their investigation ongoing.
Dr Kapil Sharma, Jo's GP at Croston Medical Centre, said she had been "well known" for attempting to get hold of her painkiller prescriptions early. "Over time we came to realise there were different excuses to see if she could obtain medication sooner," Dr Sharma said in a statement.
"We received numerous reports from the 111 service. There had been a suspicion she may be getting supplies from other sources but this was not something we could police."
The inquest heard that Jo had been admitted to hospital on many occasions over the last few years. In 2023 she was admitted on 18 times followed by seven in 2024. "When a patient has capacity we are limited in what we can do to support them," Dr Sharma added.
Returning a conclusion of misadventure - where a death is the unintended consequence of an intended act - Area Coroner Kate Bisset said: "Miss Blackburn had a number of health conditions and her death was caused by excess consumption of medication, some of which were prescribed and some of which were obtained illicitly."