A man died in hospital from a head injury after falling down concrete stairs, an inquest heard.

Simon Woodward, 32, of Clive Road, Cowley, Oxford, had been diagnosed with bowel cancer and was worried about his health when he met up with his friend Dr Neil Masuda, of Butler Close, Oxford.

Dr Masuda told Oxford Coroner's Court on December 5 how the pair drank about three pints before returning to his flat with another friend and sharing a bottle of wine.

"He seemed lucid and chatty, and wasn't showing signs of being drunk," said Dr Masuda.

"He left my flat, which is up three flights of stairs. I heard him fall on the second set of stairs.

"I found him collapsed on the second set of stairs, and called an ambulance."

Mr Woodward was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where staff saw no external signs of a head injury.

Prof Margaret Esiri, consultant neuropathologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, said Mr Woodward died in the JR on May 25, six days after being admitted to hospital.

"The brain was swollen and there was a small amount of blood at the back of the brain," she said.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of accidental death.