Law student dies after trying ecstasy for the first time while on his way to Radio 1’s Big Weekend music festival

A LAW student died after taking ecstasy for the first time on a bus heading to Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival.

Calum Gill, 21, swallowed a killer dose after hiding the drug in paracetamol capsules, an inquest heard yesterday.

Two pals who were heading with him to May’s music extravaganza in Hull, where he was at university, told how he began acting strangely.

They were upstairs on the double decker heading to the event — starring Stormzy, Rita Ora and Katy Perry — when Calum had a seizure and slumped to the floor.

An off-duty nurse battled to save the “talented” student after a policewoman and another passenger carried him off the bus.

Calum, who was weeks away from graduating with a degree in Law and European studies, died hours later in hospital after suffering three heart attacks.

His tearful family, from Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, were at his bedside. He had taken 2,313mg of the Class A drug MDMA.

Pathologist Dr Laszlo Karsai told Hull coroner’s court: “Levels above 1,800 are in the toxic range and anything beyond that can be fatal.” Coroner Oliver Longstaff recorded a verdict of misadventure. He said the student had been “on the cusp of life with the world at his feet”.

Calum’s dad Andrew said: “The tragedy of such unfulfilled potential is hard to bear.”