A PROMISING linguist with an incurable brain disease choked to death while eating a Christmas dinner with her family, an inquest heard.

Yumiko Boyle struggled to swallow a piece of roast beef. The 18-year-old was taken to Banbury's Horton Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on Christmas Eve last year.

The inquest into her death was told the teenager, from Molyneux Drive, Bodicote, near Banbury, had developed an unusual brain condition, diagnosed after her death.

Her condition was so rare that her brain has now been donated for medical research.

The inquest heard how Ms Boyle, a former student of Banbury School, had hoped to become an interpreter. But in 2005, she lost two-and-a-half stone in weight in just six months. Tests were carried out, but the problem was not identified.

Dr Margaret Esiri, a consultant neuropathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, conducted a post-mortem examination, which revealed that Ms Boyle had been suffering from neuromyelitis optica - a condition similar to multiple sclerosis. She found severe brain damage and damage to the upper spinal cord, which would have limited Ms Boyle's capacity to swallow.

She gave the cause of death as respiratory obstruction, due to the underlying medical condition.

Dr Richard Whittington, assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire, recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.