A FAMILY paid tribute to their son by setting up two fundraisers supporting a British Canoeing campaign and a charity researching Irritable Bowel Disease in children. 

Alistair Brown (20) from Southampton died in the River Leven at Backbarrow on September 28. He was with his friends from the canoe club at Warwick University. In his life, Alistair, known as Ali, loved kayaking. 

The Brown family are raising money to support the British Canoeing's (formerly known as the British Canoe Union) Clear Access Clear Waters campaign. According to the campaign website, only 3.4 per cent of UK rivers have an uncontested public right of way. It advocates for clean water free from pollution as well. 

They are also raising money for Kids With Guts, which is a charity researching paediatric Irritable Bowel Disease in children as Ali had Crohn's Disease for several years. 

Ali was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in November 2002, and had a younger sister. The family moved to England in 2006. According to the tribute read at his funeral, Warwick University described Ali as a 'polite and modest student who was always well prepared.' He was a Mechanical Engineering student starting his final year. 

His father Phil Brown said: "Ali was quiet and determined in everything he did, as one of his friends put it: 'if Ali ever spoke it would usually be in lowercase but afterwards everyone would recount his deeds in uppercase!"

Ali's friend Toby had known him from when they were at Scouts together and spoke at his funeral. He said: "He provided a personality that I will always believe to be one of a kind, as well as having an incredibly pure soul, he was a person who you knew would help you in a time of peril without a second thought.

"I will forever be grateful for having the pleasure of knowing him, and his passion for life is something I wish to take forward and resemble throughout my time, after all I learned from him why survive when you can thrive?"

Coroner Kirsty Gomersal attributed the cause of death to drowning and called it an accident at his inquest last month. She paid homage to his friends and the emergency services for their work in trying to rescue him.