A woman died after a broken leg sustained during a half marathon was misdiagnosed as a pulled hamstring, an inquest has been told.

Sarah-Jayne Roche, 39, was injured while running the Cardiff half marathon but went to hospital three times before it was realised that she was seriously injured.

Roche, who had set herself the goal of completing the race before she turned 40, had a cardiac arrest during an operation 12 days after the event and died.

The inquest was told that Roche, who had two sons aged 12 and eight, was running to raise money for Parkinson’s disease after her father, Alan, was diagnosed with the condition.

At the seven-mile point in the race, as she ran with her husband, Steven, 42, she felt “a shooting pain up her leg” and came to a halt.

St John Ambulance workers diagnosed a pulled hamstring and in the following days she was taken to hospital in excruciating pain.

On the first visit to Royal Glamorgan hospital at Ynysmaerdy, near Cardiff, on the day of the race – 7 October 2018 – Roche was told to apply ice and take ibuprofen and paracetamol.

The following day, she visited again and was prescribed stronger painkillers and told to “try a hot water bottle” instead of ice.

Her husband told the inquest: “She was in excruciating pain at that point. She was very distressed. The doctor’s conclusion was: ‘There is not much else I can do’, or words to that effect.”

Roche spent the following days in bed and had to shuffle upstairs sitting down. Her leg and foot had swollen and her foot was cold to touch, the court was told. She returned to the hospital on 12 October.

Dr Tim Manfield saw her at a soft tissue appointment but he did not send her for an x-ray despite her family’s concerns that her leg was “freezing cold”.

The inquest heard Manfield wrote in his notes that he had examined Roche and she had tenderness and pain in her quadriceps.

Roche’s mother, Patricia Newman, said the doctor had not carried out a physical examination. She said: “He wasn’t concerned. In his opinion it didn’t warrant an x-ray. I know he did not touch her.”

Roche’s father, Alan Newman, added: “I remember my wife telling the doctor her leg was freezing cold. The doctor said: ‘I’m not concerned about that, she’s immobile.’”

The inquest heard Steven later texted his wife, asking how the appointment had gone. She replied: “He didn’t do anything apart from suggest I had physio.”

On 16 October, Roche was taken to hospital yet again in “absolute agony”, the inquest heard. The inquest heard her leg was twice its usual size and deep vein thrombosis had set in. She spent three days in hospital before she died on 19 October as she was operated on.

A postmortem found Roche of Beddau, near Pontypridd, had a blood clot in the right coronary artery, a clot in the left calf and femoral vein. Her medical cause of death was pulmonary embolism with deep vein thrombosis and a fractured femur.

The inquest heard immobility was a significant factor in the development of “fairly large” blood clots.

The inquest continues.