A Somerset mother who died mysteriously after visiting Bridgwater Fair died of alcohol poisoning, an inquest has heard.

Heidi Hopley, 41, of Clare Street, North Petherton, had visited the fair in the evening with her partner, 12-year-old daughter and friends.

The inquest heard that Mrs Hopley, who was a senior therapist at the Brainwave charity, was found on the patio outside her home by her partner of three years, Scott Fisher, at around 7am on Saturday, October 1, the next morning.

Despite his attempts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, the inquest was told.

Mr Fisher told the inquest that Mrs Hopley had drunk half a lager at the fair, and then three vodka and diet lemonades after they had got home.

It is not known how much alcohol was in her drinks, or whether Heidi had a further drinks after Mr Fisher went to bed at around 12.40am, the inquest heard.

A post mortem revealed that Mrs Hopley had 380 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The drink drive limit is 80mg per 100ml, and levels greater than 300mg per 100ml can cause serious toxicity.

Tony Williams, senior coroner for Somerset, gave a verdict of accidental death, and said: “There were signs of minor trauma but no significant findings that would explain the death.

“There is no hard and fast rule for a level that can cause death but we have a level above 300mg per 100ml with no other explanation.

“It sounds as if Heidi has consumed an amount of alcohol that she may have consumed before.

"On this occasion it appears that consuming this amount of alcohol has caused this accidental death.”

Following her sudden death, Heidi’s father Martin Felstead paid a touching tribute to his “lovely girl”.


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Mr Felstead said: “She was such a lovely girl and so giving.

"She helped literally thousands of brain injured children and spent 22 years working at Brainwave.

“She was dedicated to her job and worked tirelessly to help those families.

“She will be missed by everyone there she has worked with and that she has helped.

“She leaves behind a 12 year old daughter Billy Jo and a lovely partner, Scott Fisher.

“She always had a big party on carnival night for all of her friends and the community loved it. She was very excited for it.

“We will miss her very much.”