A HEROIN user who was making a new life for himself after a decade of addiction, died after a tragic relapse, an inquest heard.

Marcus Day, aged 32, had been clean of the drug for more than three months.

But a three-week stint in prison, for an offence not named at the inquest, is believed to have led him to inject himself.

An inquest, headed by Worcestershire coroner Victor Round, was told how the painter and decorator had been found slumped in the toilet of a friend's house in Lowesmoor, Worcester, on the morning of Sunday, October 5.

An ambulance was called, but Mr Day, of no fixed abode, was pronounced dead on arrival at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

In a statement to the court, his mother said they had not expected him to die because of the tremendous efforts he had been making to combat his addiction.

"He was due to start a new job the day after he died and was making a real effort to change his life for the first time in 10 years," she said.

"He had even asked for blood tests to be done in prison so he could convince everyone he was clean.

"His death is especially sad for us as he had tried so hard. We had seen a different side to him to the one we had seen for the last decade.

"We did not expect him to die - not this year anyway."

Mr Round confirmed that tests showed Mr Day had probably been free of the drug for some time.

This, he said, had been a major reason for his death as his tolerance level to the drug had been low.

"This is a classic situation where people think they can take the same amount of drugs they did before, but they cannot," said Mr Round.

"The tolerance goes down to zero after not using but people do not understand this.''

A verdict of death by misadventure was