His father, Ruslan Mehat, 64, revealed that Nurniqmat had given him and his mother a sum of money at the end of last year and earlier this year for their umrah pilgrimage.

“My son had just given me and his mother some money for our umrah pilgrimage. I never thought it would be his last gift to us,” he told Bernama at the Darul Abideen Mosque Islamic cemetery in Bangkok on Saturday.

Ruslan said he was informed of the accident on Friday evening and immediately booked a flight to Bangkok early on Saturday morning before continuing his journey to Hua Hin.

He said Nurniqmat, his youngest son, who worked as a technical support engineer at an IBM factory, was a loving family member and had been active in paragliding for the past two years.

According to Ruslan, he had donated one of his kidneys to Nurniqmat, who was suffering from kidney problems, two years ago.

“Nurniqmat was very happy after receiving the kidney and grateful that the organ I donated was a perfect match for him,” he said.

Rafiee Aziz, 48, who was also training in Hua Hin at the time of the incident, said Nurniqmat was a talented athlete and had qualified for the pre-World Cup paragliding event in India in February and the Asian Championship in Kazakhstan in May.

“We were both training at Hua Hin beach, and the weather was quite good at the time, but suddenly the accident happened and Nurniqmat fell into the sea.

“I and other friends tried to rescue him, but the current was too strong. Nurniqmat was later confirmed dead at a hospital in Hua Hin,” Rafiee said.