Ed’s death ‘a warning’ to others

GRIEVING PARENTS OPEN UP

Reporter THE heartbroken parents of Newcastle University student Ed Farmer have told of their last moments with their son as they turned off his life support machine.

And they say they hope his tragic death will now help spread the message of the dangers of binge drinking.

Jeremy and Helen Farmer sat through the four-day inquest as they heard how Ed died after a freshers’ social event.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest and massive brain damage during a night out with his university friends – part of an initiation into the Agricultural Society.

When the 20-year-old economics student was eventually taken to hospital on that night in December 2016, he was soaking wet and his head had been shaved – results of bizarre initiation rites.

As reported, the inquest heard how first-year students were encouraged to bob for apples in urine, sprayed with paint and drank vodka from a pig’s head.

It was said that, in one Newcastle city centre bar alone, the students ordered 100 triple vodkas, and Ed drank 27 vodka shots in around three hours.

Coroner Karen Dilks ruled his death was down to the “toxic effects” of consuming excessive alcohol.

But now his mum and dad, who also have son Will, have opened their hearts as they recall how their nightmare unfolded after the police arrived at their farm in Leicester just after 3.30am on December 13 to break the harrowing news.

“I think as we drove up, I knew, deep down,” Jeremy told the Daily Mail.

“I was worrying about how much time he’d have to have off university – but the minute I saw him in that hospital bed, with the police standing there, I just thought ... no.”

The couple spent the next 12 hours sitting at their son’s bedside. “It’s a funny thing to say but it was nice,” said Jeremy. “I don’t mean nice – but better than it would have been if we’d arrived to see his corpse. He was warm. He was Ed. We could hold his hand and talk to him.”

There was never any hope that Ed would pull through. “The doctor, lovely man, said the brain damage was so huge that he just wasn’t going to make it. I think he was probably shocked by our reactions. We said immediately ‘Turn it off’. Ed wouldn’t have wanted to be a cabbage.”

Helen told how they sat with Ed for “ages” afterwards. “The nurse was there. They were brilliant. They never left him. All three of us sat and cried together.”

The grieving parents hope Ed’s death will act as a warning to other students.

“Just last night, Will was on the Metro and got chatting to two girls dressed as green peas,” Jeremy said. “They said they were off to an initiation ceremony. He begged them not to go, and told them why. One burst into tears.” Edward Farmer’s father Jeremy reads a family statement after the inquest into the death of his son, pictured above, during a night out in Newcastle