The family of a young woman who died after medics failed to spot a silent condition that kills thousands of Scots every year have spoken out two decades after her death.
Gordon and Jane McPherson, from Renfrewshire, and their son Stephen were left heartbroken when 23-year-old Katie died in January 2003 from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
Katie was studying at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh to be an occupational therapist when medics at two separate hospitals failed to spot a blood clot in her leg, instead giving her painkillers and sending her home.
Her own GP even insisted she was fine, only for Katie to die just nine days later.
DVT, known as a silent killer, along with other clot-related conditions, pulmonary embolism (PT) continues to kill more people in Scotland every year than those who die from alcohol and drugs combined.
Gordon and Jane have been campaigning for years for improve awareness about the condition and help others whose lives have been irreversibly affected by losing someone to DVT.
Gordon has looked at the statistics and continues to question why there is not more funding and awareness being raised for DVT.
He told the Scottish Daily Express: "Why are we still allowing people to die when these deaths are perfectly avoidable?"
However, Jane said she has let Gordon take over more, as she struggles to keep on discussing Katie's death, saying: "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."
Katie's room at the family home in Langbank is still full of her belongings and the couple, who are now grandparents, plan to keep it that way.
Jane explained: "We have to keep her alive in ourselves because otherwise I don't think we'd be able to cope. 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."
Gordon's involvement with the campaign has spread beyond Scotland to worldwide. In 2022 he was named the ambassador of the year by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) - which is an organisation of specialists in blood coagulation and its disorders.
He said: "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.
"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."
Gordon's latest petition will be considered by the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee next month, as he continues his campaign work. He has asked for some of Scotland's most famous landmarks, including the Kelpies and Edinburgh Castle, to be lit in blue and red on October 13 to mark World Thrombosis Day.
He said the statistics reveal 11,400 people per year die from blood clots and thrombosis in Scotland every year - around a quarter of all deaths.
Gordon said, emotionally: "Katie is gone. 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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