The last moments of a 16-year-old's life after a gas-sniffing session were relived by her best friend at an inquest in Bradford.

After the hearing into the death of Chantelle Bleau, Donna Murgatroyd said: "We spent all our time together - you couldn't part us. We didn't think of gas as a drug - it was just a cheap buzz."

Coroner Roger Whittaker recorded a verdict of accidental death and said he hoped the "tragic case of a wasted life" would prevent others experimenting with aerosols.

Donna said she was aware of the dangers but said: "Chantelle said 'It won't happen to us - we're all right - we're ace'."

"But it's so dangerous - I will never take it again," she added.

Chantelle's parents, Richard and Pat Bleau, of Little Horton, said they had no idea their daughter was sniffing gas. But Donna, 16, said she had first inhaled gas when she was ten. She and Chantelle had since done it on several occasions.

In tears at the inquest she said: "It was just a few times at weekends - we didn't do it every day - it just made you feel drunk."

She claimed Chantelle bought most of the canisters from different shops and they inhaled gas at their homes.

On the evening of December 1 they had joined a friend, Graham Bower, 16, who was babysitting for a neighbour in Hastings Avenue. He went out to the shop and Chantelle found a canister of gas which they started inhaling.

"She had a little hallucination and she was asking if her nose had got big. I said no but she was worried. Then she was all right."

But a few moments later Chantelle collapsed. Donna said she thought Chantelle was fooling but she then realised she really had collapsed.

She started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while Graham phoned for an ambulance.

When he realised Chantelle was unconscious he ran to get his mother, Mrs Denise Croft who arrived with her sister-in law. Mrs Croft said her sister-in-law took over resuscitation while she phoned for an ambulance.

Consultant pathologist Dr Philip Batman said the butane gas in the lighter fuel would stimulate the heart to circulate adrenalin which could trigger an abnormal heart rhythm.

He said Chantelle, who died shortly after arriving at Bradford Royal Infirmary, suffered a cardiac arrest due to the inhalation of the gas.

Mr Whittaker said: "Nothing, of course, can bring Chantelle back but if someone else is prevented from doing this foolish thing as a result of finding out about her death then that death may not have been in vain."

After the hearing Mrs Bleau said: "The verdict is what we expected. We're relieved it's over."

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