STRONGWOMAN KILLED BY COCAINE OVERDOSE

BRITAIN'S strongest woman died from a cocaine overdose after years of
taking a combination of drugs to improve her sporting performance and keep
her weight down, an inquest was told yesterday.

Joanne Amies-Winter, 23, was found dead by her husband, Stephen, on
February 23 on the living-room floor at a house in Newbury, Berkshire,
where they were staying with friends. The inquest was told that she had
taken 2 grams of cocaine.

This on its own was enough to kill, but she also had "drug abuser's lung" -
a build-up of fluid, caused by heart failure brought about by cocaine.

A post-mortem examination of the champion body-builder also found small
quantities of the anti-depressant Prozac and larger quantities of
ephedrine, a stimulant, and Nubain, a pain killer. Charles Hoile, the West
Berkshire Coroner, who recorded a verdict of accidental death at Newbury
Coroner's Court, said: "The message is quite clear - hard drugs can and do
kill."

Mrs Amies-Winter, who became a triathlete at 14 and went on to represent
Britain in the European and World championships, also achieved acclaim as a
bodybuilder in national and international competitions.

Her husband, a top European strongman, told the hearing that he had once
seen his wife injecting cocaine. "Jo liked to try all manner of things and
she could not really be advised not to until she had done it herself," he
said. His wife took ephedrine - often prescribed for breathing problems -
in connection with her training, he told the inquest. "Jo was always
worried about her appearance and it was a dietary aid to stop her putting
on body fat," he said. "She took it quite regularly."

The couple were staying at the home of Graham Black, 35, a champion
bodybuilder and former Mr Europe, when Mrs Amies-Winter died. Her husband
said: "Jo had brought some cocaine with her which I was not totally in
agreement with. She knew my thoughts on the subject, but in the end I did
not bother arguing about it any more.

"I was always telling her to be more careful with her body, but she would
not listen to me."

During the evening his wife went to the lavatory several times. He presumed
that that was when she took the cocaine. He said they went to sleep on the
living-room floor in Mr Black's home and he later awoke to find his wife
dead beside him. He tried but failed to rouse her and then called the
ambulance. Nothing could be done.

Robert Menai-Williams, the Home Office pathologist who carried out the
post-mortem examination, said: "The drug-taking had clearly been going on
for some time. It was probably several weeks at least for the changes I saw
in her lungs to have taken place." He said the cause of death was cocaine
toxicity coupled with the presence of drug abuser's lung - a condition
caused when cocaine constricts the blood vessels and acts as a local
anaesthetic on the heart, causing its failure and flooding the lungs with
fluid.