A WREXHAM man described as "wonderful" and "not phased by anything" by his sister, died after suffering a fall at the top of the stairs of his Rhos home.

Gerald Austin Williams, 90, a retired progress chaser at BAE Systems in Broughton, had spent many years in the navy and been in exemplary good health before his death on March 26.

John Gittins, coroner for North Wales (East and Central) told the hearing at Wrexham Guildhall how Mr Williams had many interests during his life, including gardening, motorbikes and ballroom dancing.

In a statement read out to the court, his sister Murial Ashworth said how her brother used to take great pride in his appearance and would often comment that he remained the same weight he had been in his younger days and how he had "a six pack and his own teeth".

Mrs Ashworth also explained that her brother used to really enjoy ironing and would starch the collars on his shirts, which she said was a duty he had continued to carry out ever since his days in the navy. She went on to say how Mr Williams was very independent and mobile and would regularly get the bus in and out of Wrexham town centre, visiting his "favourite establishments" but would also travel as far away as Shropshire to do likewise.

Mrs Ashworth said she would speak to her brother on the telephone every Sunday morning at 11am as a matter of routine and recalled how just a couple of weeks before his death he had told her about falling over a free standing radiator in his bedroom. She also mentioned how in the days before he died, how he had sounded "a little rough" but had told her it was just a case of the flu and that he had always sworn by taking green Lockets, a packet of which he kept in his pocket at all times.

Mr Gittins told the court how a friend of Mr Williams had heard him fall by the bathroom in the early hours of March 26 and praised the work of the Welsh Ambulance Service, who arrived at the scene within ten minutes of the call being made shortly before 2am.

Mr Williams, who was hyperventilating and agitated, was treated by paramedics at the scene for approximately 40 minutes but suffered a cardiac arrest and despite six cycles of CPR to resuscitate him, including two at Wrexham Maelor hospital, he was pronounced dead just after 3am.

A post mortem carried out by Dr Mohammed Aslam revealed that Mr Williams had an 80 percent hardening of his arteries, which along with bronchial pneumonia and a fractured vertebrae had culminated in acute heart failure.

Reaching a conclusion of death by natural causes, Mr Gittins explained to the court how the speed in which Mr Williams had died following the fall made it more clear in this case that it was the other underlying factors that had actually led to his death.

He said: "He sounded like such a wonderful man and the type you would really like to meet."