A mother-of-two who was plagued by tinnitus died of a heart attack after snorting cocaine and drinking half a bottle of wine every day for 14 years to combat the condition.

Claire Fielding, 34, was agitated by the constant buzzing in her ears and self-medicated by taking 4g of the drug alongside the alcohol, an inquest heard.

She was taken ill last July, when her partner James Goodyear saw that her lips had turned blue and she was struggling to breathe.

She told him to call an ambulance. She was taken to Royal Bolton Hospital but could not be saved.

An inquest in Bolton heard retail assistant Miss Fielding, had previously been ‘outgoing and bubbly’ but ‘retreated into her shell’ due to her hearing condition.

Mr Goodyear, her boyfriend of 17 years, said: ‘She did drink about half a bottle of wine most nights, regularly. She suffered from tinnitus and that’s what calmed her. It was this buzzing in her ears all the time.’

View photos Miss Fielding had suffered the condition for almost all her adult life More

Mr Goodyear, 41, added: ‘I knew that she took cocaine at weekends sometimes. It was a form of self medication for her.’ But he said that he had know idea how much she took, adding: ‘She was quite a private person really. She never really said what was going through her head.’

He told the inquest that on the day of the death: ‘She came down into the kitchen, she was gasping for breath and said “ring an ambulance”.

‘I had seen her like this before. Her lips had started to go blue but they had gone back to normal by the time the ambulance arrived. She wasn’t in a good state.’

Mr Goodyear was said he did not know whether Miss Fielding had taken cocaine the night before she died.

Dr Anindita Paul, of Royal Bolton Hospital, had been treating Miss Fielding for her tinnitus and inflammation of the throat since February 2016 and last saw her in May.

Dr Paul said: ‘My job was to identify the cause of the infection. The toxic infection in this case was due to cocaine use.

‘She did tell us that she was lowering her use of cocaine.

Miss Fielding, who once appeared on Channel 4 game show The Million Pound Drop in 2010, was also referred to Bolton Drug and Alcohol service where she was given some support, but her attendance was described as ‘intermittent’.

Lyndsey Price, who works for the service, said that Miss Fielding had admitted to using 4g of cocaine a day, but had cut that to 2g, along with six units of alcohol a day – the equivalent to half a bottle of wine.

A post-mortem examination established Miss Fielding had died of sudden cardiac death as a result of cocaine use.

Traces of the drug plus ibuprofen and paracetamol were found in her blood. A pathologist said this indicated Miss Fielding had taken cocaine either the night before her death or a large quantity the weekend before.

Assistant Coroner Rachel Griffin recorded a verdict of drug-related death, adding: ‘It is clear to me Claire died from a cardiac event due to her drug use. I hope that if any good can come out of Claire’s death it is a warning to others about use of cocaine and the dangers of using cocaine.

‘It is a very dangerous drug even in small amounts even with a one off use or long term use it can have fatal consequences.’

Pictures from Facebook/Claire Fielding