The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tributes pour in after death of MND campaigner Gordon Aikman.
Tributes pour in as brave Fife man loses motor neurone disease fight
The “inspirational” motor neurone disease (MND) campaigner Gordon Aikman has died aged 31.
Mr Aikman, from Kirkcaldy, was just 29 and working as director of research for the Better Together side during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign when he was diagnosed.
His husband Joe Pike announced his death on Twitter, saying: “My beautiful husband @GordonAikman has died. We are all heartbroken. He was my best friend, my soulmate and the love of my life.”
Following his diagnosis, Mr Aikman formed the Gordon’s Fightback campaign, successfully lobbying the First Minister to double the number of MND nurses and fund them through the NHS.
He also raised more than £500,000 for research to help find a cure for the terminal condition.
His family said in a statement: “We are heartbroken. Gordon was beautiful, kind, funny and utterly determined.
“He achieved more in the few short years after his diagnosis with MND than many of us do in a lifetime.
“Gordon’s campaigning and fundraising has truly inspired people, changed lives across Scotland, and we are so proud of him. We will miss him terribly.”
Mr Aikman received a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2015 and an honorary doctorate from Edinburgh University in the same year for his work to transform care for people with MND and his efforts to find a cure.
Following campaigning by Mr Aikman and the charity MND Scotland, MSPs also backed changes to the law that will give people who are at risk of losing their voice as a result of a medical condition the right to access voice equipment on the NHS.
Mr Aikman worked as a senior adviser to the Scottish Labour Party, and figures from across the political spectrum have paid tribute to him.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “I am utterly bereft. Although we all knew time was precious, Gordon’s death comes as a shock.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “I’m so terribly sad to hear that @GordonAikman has died. He faced adversity with incredible courage and did so much good for others.”
Anyone who would like to support Mr Aikman’s campaign can do so at GordonsFightback.com, or text MNDS85 £10 to 70070. It’s 17 months since I travelled down to Edinburgh to interview Mr Aikman at his flat overlooking Hibernian FC’s Easter Road football ground.
Already confined to a wheelchair at that point, he was living out a cruel, creeping, relentless death sentence which had already robbed him of the use of his hands and legs, and would eventually see him lose control of his entire body and cut short his life.
In a painfully honest interview, Gordon told me how he already had a food tube fitted to his stomach in preparation for the day when he could no longer feed himself.
He loved eating and was not thrilled at the prospect of “yucky grey sludge going in through a tube” just to keep him alive.
In spite of this, Gordon had an amazingly positive approach to his degenerative condition and lived life in “fast forward” as he promoted his Gordon’s Fightback campaign to improve care for MND sufferers.
“The only difference between you and me,” he told me as I left, “is that I know how I’m going to die and roughly when.”
Profound words – and a reminder that life is indeed, short, for us all. It’s how you live it that counts.
He achieved more in the few short years after his diagnosis with MND than many of usdoina lifetime. FAMILY