Tilton student’s tragic death used to warn freshers about drinking too much

The death of a 20-year-old Tilton on the Hill man in a university initiation-style bar crawl almost three years ago is being used as a warning to freshers about the dangers of drinking too much.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Sep 2019, 15:30 BST
Ed Farmer, of Tilton, who died after a night out with university friends in Newcastle EMN-190925-122222001Ed Farmer, of Tilton, who died after a night out with university friends in Newcastle EMN-190925-122222001
Ed Farmer, of Tilton, who died after a night out with university friends in Newcastle EMN-190925-122222001

An inquest last October found that excessive alcohol was the cause of Ed losing his life when he went out with fellow students from Newcastle University’s agricultural society in December 2016.

His parents, Jeremy and Helen, immediately called for more to be done to prevent other students suffering the same fate.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And they have written a foreword in a new guide from Universities UK to warn against the dangers of alcohol-fuelled initiation activities.

Most Popular

They write: “If students were made aware of the dangers of drinking large volumes of spirits in short periods of time and maybe aware of the signs of someone that is no longer just drunk but in a life-limiting state, and use the example of Ed to give the message some relevance, then possibly just one student might be luckier on a night out than Ed.”

At Ed’s inquest, the coroner, Karen Dilks, also called on universities to issue more forceful warnings about the dangers of alcohol for first-year students.

Ed was more than five times over the legal drink-drive limit, which caused a cardiac arrest and led to ‘unsurvivable’ brain damage.