PARENTS of a student who died 11 years after suffering a fall have warned young people against the dangers of taking part in drinking games.

Peter Wake had been playing a golf-themed game in which drinks were recorded on a scorecard as he and friends from Durham University’s rowing club visited the city’s pubs and clubs.

It is now just over a decade since the promising young history student went for that night out.

The 20-year-old, who was in his third year, was not a heavy drinker, preferring running and rowing and focusing on his studies.

He had, his parents said, his whole life ahead of him.

But on the morning on November 21, 2007, Mr Wake was found unconscious by a milkman, with a severe head injury.

He spent three weeks in intensive care, then three months on a high dependency ward before he was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability in Putney, London, where he stayed for more than a year.

Mr Wake was what medics describe as "minimally conscious", unable to speak, eat, walk, communicate or move, other than to grip a tennis ball in his left hand and write his name.

For more than ten years he was looked after in a care home, five miles from his home in Surrey, until his death in June this year.

Speaking at his inquest, held at County Durham Coroners’ Court in Crook on Friday, his father Phil Wake, a company director, said he was the "perfect son".

He said: “Pete was a happy, loving young man. He knew Durham because of our family connections. He loved the history of the place and the architecture.

“It was a good place for him to focus on his studies and his rowing.”

He was in the third year of his degree studying ancient, medieval and modern history, and was an enthusiastic member of the rowing club.

The hearing was told high levels of alcohol were found in Mr Wake’s system after the incident.

Mr Wake’s mother, Anne, who has since co-founded a charity, Brain Injury is Big, warned young people about the dangers of drinking to excess.

She said: "Alcohol was involved and I wish people did not drink to excess like this. People drink far too much. It can have serious consequences.

"We have to say it is not clever, and we have to show people this is what can happen."

The 31-year-old's cause of death was acute adult respiratory distress and aspiration pneumonia as a result of traumatic brain injury.

Phil Wake, who is from Sunderland, but now lives in Surrey, said: “Students and drinking has been going on since time began and young people need to know this is the sort of thing that can happen.”

Assistant Coroner Leslie Hamilton said a police investigation ruled out the involvement of a third party.

He said without further evidence the exact circumstances surrounding Mr Wake’s injuries may never be known.

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death and said it was directly connected to the events in Durham 11 years ago.

He said: “I cannot imagine what it must like to have a child go away to university and not have them come back.

“The lesson here is the danger of drinking games. I hope that students take a lesson from that. These are not benign games.”