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A teenager died from a fatal dose of LSD while on a gap-year trip to Canada, weeks before he was due to start studying marine zoology, an inquest heard yesterday .

Henry Suggitt, who had been due to start studying at Bangor University in North Wales was visiting friends in southern Canada when he took the psychedelic drug.

The 19-year-old had returned to the UK from a trip travelling in south-east Asia in August 2015, but set off to north America shortly afterwards to visit friends he had made on the previous trip.

Reading aloud a statement written by his father Chris, Surrey Coroner Darren Stewart described him as a fit and active young man, despite an allergy to peanuts and suffering from asthma.

He had visited friends in Regina, Saskatchewan, before moving east to Winnipeg to meet up with his friend Bryce Duncan, whose evidence the coroner summarised to the inquest.

(Image: INS News)

"It would appear that on September 2, 2015, Henry and Mr Duncan both got up to go a cabin in the countryside," he said.

"They arrived in the cabin about early afternoon at which point they consumed LSD. It was about 2.30pm to 3pm. There are no details on the amount of LSD they consumed.

"They had been drinking beer and continued to drink beer at the same time as they consumed the LSD. They subsequently went for a half-hour walk which took them out to a look-out point in a small clearing of the Canadian countryside.

"It was about that point in time, 35 minutes or so after leaving the cabin, they started to feel the effects of the drug. At that point they were just hanging out, drinking beers, laughing and chatting while looking out at a view over a valley.

"Subsequent to this Henry then started to go downhill and then laid down on the grass and look up at the sky. He then started to act in a bizarre fashion."

He continued: "Mr Duncan identified mood swings and behaviour in a manner which was bizarre, almost demonstrating a manicness - running around, throwing himself on the ground and throwing himself in trees and bushes."

(Image: INS News)

Mr Stewart described to the inquest how Mr Suggitt suddenly stopped his exertions and lay still on the ground, much to the concern of his friend.

After failing to call an ambulance due to the lack of mobile phone signal, Mr Duncan briefly walked off to somewhere with better signal so he could alert the authorities.

"He was in the process of doing so when he heard Henry scream out and became silent," Coroner Sterwart explained.

"Mr Duncan then returned to where Henry was and found him unconscious. He tried to resuscitate him but was unsuccessful. He then administered Henry's EpiPen, thinking it was an allergic reaction, but that was to no avail."

Mr Duncan then went off to call paramedics, who arrived sometime later, but were unable to resuscitate him and pronounced him dead at the scene.

"Although Mr Duncan cannot give an indication as to what time it was, he said it was dark by the time the paramedics arrived," the coroner added.

A post-mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr Susan Phillips in Winnipeg on September 3 gave the medical cause of death as LSD toxicity - something which Mr Stewart agreed with.

He was found to have 1.3 micrograms of LSD in his system, for every microlitre of blood and 31mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

"There's no indication of the quantity of LSD that either Henry or Mr Duncan took on September 3," he said.

"However the evidence from the post-mortem examination is clear in that it attributes Henry's death to being one of LSD toxicity.

"I accept those findings that the medical cause of death of Henry Suggitt was one of LSD toxicity and as a consequence record a conclusion of drug-related death."

(Image: INS News)

Turning to his parents who both attended the inquest at Woking Coroners' Court he added: "I can only imagine how painful it must be to lose someone so young with such a promising future."

Since losing their son to what they described was a "one-off" drug experiment, his parents have raised more than £20,000 for the Surrey-based Eikon Charity, who go in schools and inform children about the dangers of taking drugs, even in isolated incidents.

Describing her son, Brigitte Suggitt, 51, said afterwards: "He was a very fit, healthy young man and he was not a normal drug-taker. This was a one-off but he chose to do it with his friend.

"For us we wanted to let others know about the dangers in that even one-off drug taking can have a devastating impact. We just want something positive to come out of all this."

Mr Suggitt, of St John's Way, Woking, Surrey, died on September 2 2015. For more information about his family's fundraising efforts visit https://gogetfunding.com/henry-suggitt .