PENSIONER Vera Antczak died days after a successful operation to remove a stomach cancer.

An inquest heard that the fit-as-a-fiddle ex-weaver was taken ill in September with what she at first put down as no more than a stomach bug.

She was eventually persuaded to see a doctor who referred her immediately to a consultant.

Mrs Antczak, 80, of Gloucester Avenue, Accrington, was diagnosed as having stomach cancer on December 22 and the operation was carried out on December 27. Mrs Antczak's niece, Dorothy Riley, said she visited her aunt on New Year's Eve and she looked "marvellous" but when she saw her two days later there was a marked deterioration and she died three days later.

She said her aunt had always been very fit and had never had a day's sickness until the cancer struck.

Dr Richard Prescott said a post mortem examination revealed the operation had been carried out correctly but Mrs Antczak had died of bronchopneumonia as a result of immobility following surgery.

Deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton recorded a verdict of misadventure.