A clinic in Switzerland which provides assisted suicide to hundreds of people each year has apologised to the mother of a British man who took his own life without his family’s knowledge.

Following an ITV News investigation, Pegasos said it would change its procedures to ensure that relatives were always informed in future.

Forty-seven-year-old Alastair Hamilton told his mother he was flying to Paris last August, but instead travelled to Basel where he took a lethal dose of drugs.

As Judith Hamilton, 82, waved him off to the airport, she says her son told her: “He put his arms around me, looked me straight in the eyes and he was smiling. And he said ‘love you, mum, love you lots, always have, always will no matter what’.”

The chemistry teacher had dramatically lost weight and complained of stomach problems in the months leading up to his death, but did not have a diagnosed illness.

His family had been supporting him in seeking medical help and had no idea he was actually travelling to Switzerland to end his life.