TESTS will be carried out in a London hospital after a pathologist could not determine the cause of death of a Colne man.

The body of 50-year-old David Francis Patrick Edwards was found at his home at Varley Street by his wife Florence and her sister Sarah Ellen Shaw on September 17.

He had been dead for a few days.

There was a note and several empty medicine bottles in the house.

At an inquest in Nelson, pathologist Dr Zafar Qureshi said there was no obvious natural cause for Mr Edwards' death and he had tried to take samples for testing but could only get a small amount of blood.

Experts at Burnley and Manchester had not been able to test the sample, but at the family's request, the blood is now being sent to a London hospital for further examination.

Mr Edwards, a service engineer, had asked his wife to stay with her sister in Gordon Street, Nelson, for a few days and he took her there last Monday.

Mrs Shaw told the inquest she saw him in Victoria Park, Nelson, on Monday afternoon , and when they parted he said: "If she (Mrs Edwards) is coming home tomorrow tell her not to come on her own."

Mrs Edwards said she last spoke to him on the telephone on Monday evening when he wished her good night and told her he loved her.

She said her husband had been diagnosed with diabetes after they returned from America in 1989 and in 1996 he was involved in a road accident which left him with a broken jaw, arms, legs and nose.

She said: "He tried to work but found it difficult. It did get him down.

"His life changed dramatically.

"Before, he would play golf and go fishing. After, he didn't even go upstairs to sleep. His quality of life was nothing."

She said he was on medication and painkillers and had told counsellors he was thinking about ending his life.

East Lancashire coroner David Smith adjourned the inquest until the results of the tests were back.

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