GORDON Aikman’s life was cruelly short but beautifully lived. Diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) at the age of 29, he has died at 31, having crammed a lifetime into two-and-a-half years when time was only made more precious by being against him. Told there was nothing he could do, he refused to do nothing.
The former Better Together research director turned his talents to campaigning for MND care and research, raising £530,000 through his initiative Gordon’s Fightback. With the crucial support and love of his husband, Joe Pike – author of the referendum book Project Fear – Gordon turned the last stage of his life into Project Fearless, forming meaningful political alliances to get things done, including a doubling in the number of specialist MND nurses on the personal intervention of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
READ MORE: Scottish Motor Neurone Disease campaigner Gordon Aikman dies aged 31
She was just one of many politicians and personalities paying tribute to Mr Aikman yesterday. The words were heartfelt, pained. He inspired everyone whom he met and retained the grace to be inspired by others, notably the carers who so often went beyond the call of duty, brightening up a household that strived at all times to be happy. A living wage for all carers became another campaign.
Everything was positive: do something; make things better. The selflessness required for this while his situation worsened is inspirational. MND may have wasted Mr Aikman’s life. He didn’t waste it. He savoured his life. He made it meaningful, valid.
READ MORE: Scottish Motor Neurone Disease campaigner Gordon Aikman dies aged 31
There is a school of thought that life without adversity is meaningless. Tough times make tough people. It is not an outlook most of us contemplate cheerfully. Adversity was forced upon this former gymnast, confining him latterly to a wheelchair. But it did not tame him. He defied it, providing inspiration to all and a renewed determination to conquer a condition that cuts short too many good lives.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here