A 74-year-old man who lived alone drowned himself after apparently correctly diagnosing his own cancer.

Retired garage attendant Brian Davies, who was single and never married, lived in Caldecott in Abingdon.

His brother Roy Davies told an inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court today he was a quiet person who had no friends and 'kept himself to himself'.

Every day he got up early, bought his paper then went to the bookies to bet on horses.

The inquest heard that in early December 2016 without any warning he drowned himself in the river Ock near his home.

Abingdon resident Dean Taylor was walking to work at 6am on December 6 when he spotted the body from the Iron Bridge over the Ock and called the police.

PC Keith Morton searched the body but only found a set of house keys and betting slips for Ladbrokes.

He tried both Ladbrokes in Abingdon, then a regular at the Bath Street branch, Donald Crook, said he had not seen his fellow better Brian Davies in a few days.

The pair went to Mr Davies' house and discovered the set of keys found on the body worked.

Inside, on top of a stack of newspapers, they found a note in which Mr Davies indicated he had cancer and was in significant pain.

He signed off 'Sorry Roy and Jan' – his brother's wife.

Mr Davies' brother said he had no idea of the cancer diagnosis, and in fact, despite asking around all the GP surgeries in Abingdon, assistant coroner Nicholas Graham said his staff could not find any indication that Mr Davies was registered with any practice, making it unclear how he knew he had cancer.

A post mortem examination later revealed that Mr Davies did indeed have a tumour in his oesophagus.

Roy and Jan Davies told the inquest hearing they thought Mr Davies must have correctly diagnosed himself.

Mr Graham concluded that Mr Davies had indeed taken his own life and drowned.