A 27-YEAR-OLD woman died of an overdose of heroin shortly before she was due to check into a drug rehabilitation centre, an inquest heard.

Jennifer Round, of Monks Lane, Breightmet, died at Accident and Emergency at the Royal Bolton Hospital on May 12, last year.

Pathologist Dr Angelia Ong, told said that she was also developing the early stages of septacaemia - an infection of the blood, likely to be caused by using needles.

Michael Watson, Miss Round's partner, said that she was about to go through a detox and wanted to stop using heroin.

She had been complaining about a pain in her thigh, caused by injecting heroin, and had been to see doctors at the hospital on the morning of her death, when she was prescribed methadone.

The doctors warned her that if she continued to use heroin she might fall victim to more serious complications.

Mr Watson said that Miss Round normally took heroin in the evenings but added that he suspected she had started taking the drug during the day as well.

He said that she became very ill in the evening and added: "She couldn't catch her breath and she was burning up."

Coroner Jennifer Leeming said: "Jennifer died as a result of an overdose of heroin against a background of a pre-existing infection."