A family have paid tribute to a 'friendly and popular' lad who died at the age of 31.

Christopher Andrew John Entwistle died at Royal Bolton Hospital after suffering a seizure.

He had been on pain medication to alleviate severe shoulder pain.

Mr Entwistle was found unresponsive in his bedroom in his home in Tetbury Drive in Bolton on August 17 of last year.

Mr Entwistle, an electrician had been suffering from shoulder pain for many years as well as painful abscesses on his face and also was diagnosed with epilepsy.

His mum told coroner John Pollard at Bolton Coroner’s Court: “He was a very friendly, popular and fun-loving lad who had lots of friends and was a good father to his son.

“He was very disciplined and passed that onto his son.

“He had a bad shoulder injury that pop out sometimes and on the day he died, he had a seizure which he also had a lot of.”

Mr Entwistle was dealing with agonising pain and was in and out of the GP with medications such as tramadol to manage it.

Dr David Fiske had seen the electrician a number of times as well as other doctors at The Dunstan Partnership.

A post-mortem by pathologist Dr Sawant and Julie Evans revealed that there was nothing else to show how Mr Entwistle had died other than combined drug intoxicity of controlled pain medications, which were found in alarmingly high quantities in his blood.

His mum Lesley Entwistle recalled how he seemed so tired in the days leading up to his death that at one point she couldn’t get him out of the car.

She said: “Christopher feeling tired could have been a symptom of an accumulation of the medication.

“Pregabalin alone can be fatal and can cause respiratory oppression when used together an opioid like tramadol.

“Pregabalin is used to treat seizures but can also lead to them if used in excess.”

Coroner John Pollard returned an open conclusion as there was no way of knowing if Mr Entwistle has taken the medications in excess deliberately to numb the pain or had simply forgotten how much had taken before.

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He said: “I am recording this as an open conclusion as I do not know whether Christopher took the medications on accident or deliberately to help alleviate the pain.

“We do not know how he got to the excess amount of the drugs in his system."