A WOMAN died on holiday in Greece after drinking a lethal amount of alcohol in a single day, an inquest heard.

Valerie Jones, 54, from Cattistock, had gone to the island of Santorini with her company director husband Nigel for a break after she had undergone treatment for breast cancer.

The couple, whose teenage daughter is a talented dressage rider, saw the trip as an ideal chance for therapist Mrs Jones to recuperate.

On the second day of the holiday Mrs Jones began drinking wine before and during lunch and then again with their evening meal.

After having a nightcap with her husband, Mrs Jones joined a wedding party at the hotel they were staying at and carried on drinking.

Shortly before 2am she collapsed in the toilets and was found to be in an unresponsive state. She was rushed to a local hospital but died on arrival.

A post mortem examination found she was four-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit at the time which would have been enough to kill her.

The inquest heard Mrs Jones was a 'bubbly, social and caring' lady who shared a love of horses with her daughter.

Mr Jones, who is also a governor at £22,000 a year Sherborne Preparatory School, told the inquest his wife was not a heavy drinker.

He said: "Valerie was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2016 and as part of her treatment she underwent radiotherapy and surgery at Poole hospital.

"After this we decided to take in a holiday to Santorini in September 2016 to help her in her recovery."

He said that on the day of her death his wife had been drinking wine throughout the day.

Mr Jones, 52, said: "We had some wine taking in the sights as one does on holiday.

"We then had some wine with lunch and again later on with our evening meal.

"We then decided to head back (to the hotel) and had a nightcap."

They had a few more drinks at the hotel where there was a wedding party going on downstairs. 

Mrs Jones got speaking to members of the party and was invited to join in at around midnight.

Tired, Mr Jones decided to reject the offer and go to bed but told his wife to continue enjoying herself.

A few hours later he awoke to find she had not returned.

He went to find her but was then informed by a member of hotel staff that she had been found, collapsed and unresponsive in the toilets. 

The emergency services were called but Mrs Jones was later pronounced dead at Santorini General Hospital.

Mr Jones said: "She did drink, as many of us do, and had a level of tolerance to alcohol."

An initial post-mortem examination, carried out in Greece, believed her death was caused by a pulmonary edema - a build up of fluid in the lungs, but once her body was returned to Britain that was found not to be the case.

A further post-mortem found there was little evidence of this and concluded Mrs Jones had died an alcohol-related death on September 27 last year.

Pathologist Dr Kudair Hussein, who carried out the second post-mortem, told the Bournemouth inquest that high alcohol levels in her blood were responsible for her death.

Dr Hussein said: "When blood alcohol levels go above 350mg per 100ml it is not unknown that people can die suddenly.

"My report showed that Mrs Jones had 358mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

"On the balance of probability you can conclude that this was the cause of her death."

In her summing up of the case, the Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin ruled that Mrs Jones' death was due to acute alcohol toxicity.

Mrs Griffin said: "Having heard all the evidence I am satisfied that Valerie Jones died an alcohol-related death.

"From what I've been told Valerie sounds like a 'bubbly, social and caring' lady.

"She had been very brave to go through everything she'd experienced in relation to her health and I'd like to pass my condolences on to her husband Nigel and all of her family."