A BRIDE-TO-BE who suffered a migraine during her wedding rehearsal died 48 hours before she was due to walk down the aisle.

An inquest in Darlington heard yesterday how a rare series of events, triggered by a severe headache, caused Penelope Taylor to fall into a coma and suffer fatal brain damage.

The 27-year-old fell ill at her wedding rehearsal in September last year and she was found unconscious next day at the home she shared with 29-year-old fiance, Paul Gibson, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

She was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital but suffered a stroke and died next morning, two days before the couple were to have married.

Home Office pathologist Dr James Sunter told the inquest that tests had ruled out meningitis and a host of other possibilities as the cause of the coma.

He said: "There is no evidence of damage or disease to the arteries supplying blood to the brain.

"It would appear the patient was presented with these symptoms due to a severe migraine in which the arteries go into spasm and restrict the oxygen to the brain. It is a very unusual case indeed."

Darlington and South West Durham coroner Kenneth Howe said death was caused by a restriction of oxygen to the brain and recorded a verdict of natural causes.

The couple had planned to marry at All Saint's Church, in Hurworth, near Darlington, on September 22, but only days later the church was packed with mourners for her funeral.

Penelope's family spoke movingly of their daughter who helped save five lives around the country by donating her lungs, heart, kidneys and liver through the organ donor scheme. She was also a blood donor and on the bone marrow register.

Her mother Daphne, 49, of Neasham, near Darlington, said: "We decided her wedding dress had been bought to be worn for just one day and it wouldn't be right for her to wear that.

"So the dress was laid beside her in the coffin and she wore the going away clothes she had bought for the honeymoon in Barbados."

A keen hiker and badminton player, Penelope was responsible for bedding plants and hanging baskets at the family's market garden business M Wood Nurseries, in Neasham.

At 12, Penny became the youngest girl to complete the Lyke Wake Walk. At 13 she became the youngest member of her local WI, where her mother is president.

After leaving school, Penny flew alone to Australia to meet up with a cousin and backpack to Ayres Rock.

Described by her family as a "party animal" in her youth, she was keen on fast cars and planes until she met Paul, and settled down.

Mrs Taylor said: "In the months before the wedding I realised she had changed.

"She spoke about being a wife and mother. She even traded her sporty car for a family saloon with child seats, so she was obviously planning a family soon."

Mr Gibson, who is still too upset to talk about the tragedy, has now left his office job to take over Penelope's side of the nursery business.

Her 51-year-old father, Lewis, said: "I wanted to close it all down - I just thought what's the point.

"But Paul said 'no', it was what Penny had worked for, it was her dream."

Mr Taylor added: "She packed more into 27 years than many manage in 87, but she has left a massive hole in our lives that can never be filled."