A HAMPSHIRE charity worker died after stumbling as she went for a swim in the Mediterranean.

While on holiday Auriol Mayo was so captivated by the northern Cyprus beach that she decided to go for a swim, an inquest heard.

Her companion Lynne Nesbit said she watched Ms Mayo walk into the waves on May 28 last year.

In a statement Ms Nesbit said: “It was so beautiful that she decided to go for a swim. It was very still and shallow. I watched her wade out about 200 yards so the water was above her knees.

“I saw her stumble forward and try to regain her balance. She stumbled again and I felt something was not right.

“Her back arched and her front sank further. I knew something bad had happened.”

Ms Mayo was lifted out of the sea and people tried CPR on the beach but to no avail.

Consultant pathologist Adnan Al-Badri conducted a second post-mortem after one done in Cyprus. He said the cause of death was submersion in sea water.

There was no evidence of a heart attack or stroke, he said.

She had no close family except for a step-nephew John Newman.

In a statement he said Miss Mayo, 79, of Canon Street, was very fit and active, doing voluntary work for the Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group that helps asylum seekers and also for Citizens Advice.

Senior coroner Grahame Short recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said Ms Mayo did not drown in the conventional sense but swallowing even a small amount of water can be fatal.