A family outing to in the Lake District ended in tragedy at a popular beauty spot, an inquest heard.
The hearing, held at Cockermouth, was told that Dr Banashree Jana, 73, died as a result of multiple injuries sustained in a fall from Keswick’s Surprise View, which overlooks Derwentwater.
Her son Bhaskar Jana said that in June last year his mother had travelled from her home in Bangalore, India, to stay with himself, his wife and their daughter at their home in Croydon.
Although in her 70s and suffering from type two diabetes, she was still active and had been running her GP practice up to the time of the COVID pandemic.
The family came to Cumbria on August 20 for a holiday, staying at Alston, and on August 26 went on a trip to Keswick. They looked around the town before heading to Surprise View late in the afternoon.
A member of another group agreed to take a photograph of the family as they stood together on the highest point, and it was after this had been done and they were coming back down to the lower area that Dr Jana fell.
“I came over a rock, followed by my wife and our daughter, and mother went round the side – she fell backwards and we could hear her shouting in pain,” said Mr Jana.
His wife, Indrani Battachara, talked to Dr Jana for about 15 minutes, but the older woman had fallen silent by the time help arrived in the form of mountain rescue volunteers and an air ambulance.
A mountain rescue team member said she had fallen a vertical distance of 15-20 metres and then tumbled 20 to 30 metres down a slope – although Mr Jana said these seemed like rather high estimates.
He also said he believed there should be safety railings or warning signs at Surprise View.
Concluding Dr Jana’a death had been accidental, coroner Robert Cohen said what should have been a lovely and memorable family occasion had ended in tragedy.
