A YOUNG mum who fell to her death down a steep flight of stairs has given the gift of life to five others.

Lauren Cooke’s grieving parents, Ian and Julie, yesterday spoke of how the donation of her organs was a small comfort to them as they attended the 25-year-old’s inquest in Salisbury.

The hearing was told that the payroll manager, who lived in Denby Road with her boyfriend and her 18-month-old son, had consumed a substantial amount of vodka before tragedy struck at her friend’s first-floor flat.

All her friends know of what happened is that Lauren left to go home and they heard a loud bang and discovered her bleeding and unconscious at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway.

An ambulance and fire crew were called at 2.30am and the front door of the flat in Cricklade Road, Gorse Hill, was smashed open to get Lauren outside.

She was taken to Great Western Hospital in the early hours of June 13 before being transferred to the intensive care unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, where she died the following day from a severe head injury.

Solomon Tsegaye and Marcellus Hughes, who live in the flat above a second-hand shop, described Lauren, who they have known for five years after meeting on a night out, as being in good spirits that evening, arriving at 11pm.

They had been listening to music and dancing in the kitchen while another friend was asleep in one of the bedrooms.

In evidence given by Marcellus and read out during the inquest, he said: “Lauren arrived with vodka, she was in a party mood.

“She had fallen down the stairs two or three years ago before but was not hurt. I had also fallen down them before.”

A police investigation concluded there were no suspicious circumstances and DS Becky Smart described it as a “tragic accident".

She said: “There didn’t appear to be anything that would have caused her to trip and there was no disturbance in the flat.”

Coroner Claire Balysz recorded Lauren’s death as an accident.

Paying tribute, her father Ian, who is the managing director of the family catering supply company, said: “Lauren was a fun loving girl. She had lots of friends, we didn’t realise how many until this.

“She lived life to the full and was very cherished and loved. She was never happier than being with her friends.”