The parents of an Edinburgh graduate who died of a blood clot two decades ago and campaigning for more awareness of the killer condition.
Gordon and Jane McPherson's lives came crashing down on January 26 2003 as the couple lost their only daughter, Katie.
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and other clot conditions, pulmonary embolism (PT) and venous thromboembolism (VTE), are behind more deaths here every year than those caused by alcohol and drugs, reports the Scottish Express.
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Gordon has analysed the statistics, compared the spending and hammered at the doors of decision makers for years to try and make sense of it all. "Why are we still allowing people to die when these deaths are perfectly avoidable," he asks - and has been asking for the past 20 years.
Katie was a happy student, following in the footsteps of her mum to become an occupational therapist, when she died, aged just 23. Doctors at two hospitals failed to spot a blood clot in her leg and she was sent home with painkillers.
Even her own GP insisted she was fine yet nine days later she was dead.
After the shock of losing their daughter so suddenly wore off, Gordon and Jane embarked on a campaign to improve awareness and help others who'd been through the heartache they'd just experienced. But over the years Jane has taken more of a backseat.She said: "I support Gordon in everything he does but I can't do it anymore. It's like reliving Katie's death - I was with her when she died.
"I want every single person to be aware of DVT. We now have a little granddaughter who is nine. Our son is absolutely adamant she is going to be tested to see if she's carrying the faulty gene.
"If she is, then the doctors are going to be informed. It's so preventable, it's a complete waste of life. Katie was happy. She was in her wee flat in Edinburgh, she was at Queen Margaret [University] and had a wee cat with her.
"She was absolutely, perfectly happy. And it shouldn't have happened."
Their daughter's room in the family home in Langbank, Renfrewshire, still carries memories of her such as her cuddly toys and the proud grandparents have no plans of changing that.
"We have to keep her alive in ourselves because otherwise I don't think we'd be able to cope," Jane says. "We are 20 years down the line. It's easier. However, the trauma and anguish does not go away.
"Our granddaughter is so funny because she'll say, 'Granny, can I go to Aunty Katie's bedroom because I want to play with her cuddly toys'. I keep saying to her, 'You don't have to ask darling. Just go into Aunty Katie's bedroom'. And every time she does she looks at her picture on the wall and says, 'Hi Aunty Katie'. Obviously she never met her."
But Gordon is still fully involved in the campaign - not just in Scotland but worldwide. Last year he was named the ambassador of the year by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) - an organisation of specialists in blood coagulation and its disorders.
He finds the honour "humbling" especially as the recognition for his work has been slow coming closer to home. "Trying to get the Scottish Government to listen, to accept this is happening all over the world, it is happening here, seems to be the hardest part," he says.
"I keep approaching all of the health ministers in Scotland and actually thought I'd have a breakthrough with the new one, Michael Matheson. He is an occupational therapist, Jane was one too and Katie was training to be one.
"Michael Matheson qualified from the Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh and Katie was a student there. I explained this all to him but received the usual blank.
"The Scottish Government say they spoke about it in 2011 so there's no need to talk about it anymore. It just seems to be an accepted fact that X amount of people are going to die and a certain percentage will survive and that's it."
Despite the setbacks, Gordon is as adamant as ever to "keep at it".
His latest petition is due to be considered by Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee next month while he has also requested some of Scotland's most iconic landmarks such as the Kelpies and Edinburgh Castle be lit in blue and red on October 13 to mark World Thrombosis Day.
He said 11,400 people per year succumb to conditions related to blood clots and thrombosis in Scotland every year - around one in every four deaths.
"Katie is gone," he sighs. "I can't do anything about it. So why am I doing this? I know the hell it put our family through and I know for a fact it will affect an awful lot of other families.
"But I'd much rather I wasn't involved in this and Katie was still here. But hey ho, we've just got to make do with what we've got."
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