A well-known shopkeeper died when she crashed her car into a wall, an inquest heard.

Florence Vernon Sibson, 80, died of her injuries before paramedics attended the scene at Boot Brow, Distington on January 14 this year.

Senior coroner David Roberts said the accident occurred after Mrs Sibson of Commonside, Distington, lost control of her car and failed to negotiate a bend in the road near her home.

The inquest today heard Mrs Sibson had been suffering from abdominal pain, which Mr Roberts said may have contributed to her losing control of the car.

Mrs Sibson's GP, Richard Tranter, said she had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and had undergone scans for suspected gastrointestinal cancer, but she never found out the exact diagnosis.

Mrs Sibson's husband, Donald, told the inquest she had been "in a lot of pain" and had "not been sleeping" leading up to her death.

He added that the cancer scare particularly bothered her, because her sister died of cancer.

Taxi driver Malcolm Stewart, told the inquest he witnessed Mrs Sibson failing to turn as the road veered to the right in his rear view mirror after overtaking her.

Mr Stewart said Mrs Sibson had been driving "very slowly" at around 10-12mph on a road with a 40mph speed limit and "thought she was lost".

As he overtook Mrs Sibson, Mr Stewart said she began to pick up speed before she crashed and said "she didn't appear to brake or drop her speed".

Jonathon Clement, a Distington resident, said he heard an "almighty bang" and nearby people rushed over to help Mrs Sibson.

The coroner did not rule out the possibility of Mrs Sibson suffering a cardiac arrest before crashing, but said "on the balance of probabilities, it is most likely that the pain in her abdomen has caused her to lose control of the car".

He ruled that the death was due to a road traffic collision.

The inquest heard Mrs Sibson had a son, Ian, and three grandchildren.

She trained as a shorthand typist after leaving secondary school in Kells and took various jobs before marrying Donald and taking over his father's greengrocers in Whitehaven's market.

Mr Sibson told the inquest his wife was passionate about pottery, local history, walking and badminton.

He added: "She was a strong person who would try anything, do anything and talk to anybody."