Mystery surrounds the death of an Upper Clatford woman who “lied” about having cancer before passing away.

Yong Nui Shield, known as Nui, passed away on October 19 2019 at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester after being admitted on October 17 following a vomiting episode at home. She claimed to family members that she had liver cancer, but later admitted she had “made it up”.

The 61-year-old was found to have swallowed a significant amount of gout medication and wine to create the symptoms, and though she recovered on the ward, she had taken a fatal dose of the medication, and suffered a cardiac arrest before passing away.

Coroner Christopher Wilkinson gave a verdict of accidental death.

Mrs Shield had moved from Thailand at the age of nine, and worked as a chef at a Thai restaurant in Andover. Here, she met her husband Trevor, and they moved in together. She was said to have “a difficult relationship with alcohol”, which caused arguments between the couple.

In a statement read out in Portsmouth Coroners’ Court, Mr Shield, who passed away in 2020, said that his wife had told him she had four brothers in the UK who had “returned to Thailand to die” after contracting leukemia, which she claimed she was also developing.

Mr Shield had returned home on October 17, 2019, to find his wife asleep on the sofa. When she woke, she began retching and then vomiting, and this gradually got worse until she asked for an ambulance. Mr Shield said he would drive her t the hospital, but she said she wanted an ambulance.

Paramedics then took her to Winchester hospital, where she told doctors that she had leukemia and had been undergoing chemotherapy. When Mr Shield went to visit her, doctors told him they could find no evidence of this in her medical history, while nurses reported “odd” behaviour.

She subsequently confessed to a nurse, Alice Ilbury, that she didn’t have cancer, and said she created the symptoms by drinking wine and taking gout medication, namely colchicine. She claimed her husband was “holding her financially” and preventing her from accessing land she owned in Thailand ‘worth millions’.

Mr Shield’s sister, Lesley Nash, denied this, and said the family had previously had to send her money while she visited Thailand to see relatives. A police investigation after Mrs Shield’s death also found “no concerns”.

Ms Nash added that her brother may have controlled her finances to some degree due to Mrs Shield’s relationship with alcohol, saying: “It is very possible my brother did not want her to purchase alcohol so would not give her a great deal of money.”

While in hospital, Mrs Shield was seen using a form of deep heat medication on her legs, and it was suggested she may have had “a flare up” of gout. Her GP, Dr Rosemary Griffiths, said that she had a history of the disease stretching back over a decade, but that attacks had become more frequent in recent years.

For this, she was prescribed colchicine, which is to reduce symptoms of initial attacks, and febuxostat as a long term preventative. However, Dr Griffiths told the court that Mrs Shield “would stop taking febuxostat when her joints felt better”, requiring further prescriptions of both medicines when symptoms later returned, as both must be taken together for the first few months of treatment.

After Mrs Shield’s death, a post-mortem took place, which found “significantly raised” levels of colchicine in her blood, at a level associated with fatality. She is estimated to have taken between one or two week’s worth of pills at once, and had threatened to take her own life to a nurse.

Dr Griffiths told the court there was “no indication” she was suicidal, and that she “found her quite cheerful”.

Ms Nash also said she did not believe Mrs Shield had taken her own life, adding: “My own feeling was that she perhaps wanted a bit of attention”.

The coroner agreed with them, saying there was “not enough evidence to suggest a deliberate act” by Mrs Shield to take her own life, with no other evidence except for the admission to a nurse.

He said that there was “an inconsistency in the evidence that has been presented”, perhaps pointing to Mrs Shield “seeking greater attention”.

While a verdict of suicide was ruled out, the coroner said there was evidence to suggest “a reckless act” on Mrs Shield’s part, whether as “as an act of desperation after a flare up of gout” or “seeking attention”.

A verdict of accidental death was declared.