Ian chose to spend his last few days in Marie Curie at Fairmilehead, Edinburgh. We took him into the hospice with some trepidation, but we were astounded at the level of caring, empathy and support all the staff gave to us. As a result, we really want to give something back to them. 

So over the past 20 months we have been raising money for Marie Curie through a number of events and this page shows how much has been raised to date. 

As part of our fund raising activities, Fiona Ingram and I are running the Glasgow Half Marathon on 4th October along with a number of other friends and family. Fiona has been exemplary in her training and worked very hard to prepare for it. I haven't and as a result have been somewhat impacted by various injuries. However, I am still determined to complete it, come what may!

So, if you feel you can sponsor one fit and one not so fit woman, we would be very grateful! It is a great cause.

Thank you so much for your support, it means so much to the family and myself. 

Jacqui

This is the obituary that appeared in the Scotsman, written by Martin Hannan. We all felt it was a very touching and true piece about Ian.

IAN ROY MORRISON

 Campaigner who helped change the rules on cancer drugs

 Born: 24 June, 1956, in Stranraer.

Died: 30 January, 2014, in Edinburgh, aged 57.

 Ian Morrison sought publicity only late in his life, when, as a victim of the cancer that would eventually cause his death last week, he fought the bureaucracy of the National Health Service – and he won.

His remarkably courageous stance on the issue of whether Scottish cancer victims should be provided with life-prolonging drugs by the NHS made headlines in 2012.

Diagnosed with bowel cancer the previous year, Ian and his then fiancee Jacqui reacted with a resourcefulness and determination that was typical of both of them.

They brought forward their wedding which, by chance, took place at 11 am on 11 November, 2011. That cleared the decks for them both to do everything they could to beat his cancer.

One month later, he had part of his bowel removed and then had chemotherapy, but the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, and though he battled on and hoped for the best, the cancer spread to his lungs and liver.

The couple found that a new generation of drugs was helping people with cancer to live longer, but NHS Lothian, who were responsible for his treatment, refused to pay for Cetuximab though it was widely available in England and to ‘special cases’ elsewhere in Scotland.

The Morrisons spent £12,000 on a private course of Cetuximab treatment while enlisting the help of people like local MSP Christine Grahame and the Beating Bowel Cancer group to fight this NHS anomaly. The press highlighted this ‘postcode lottery’ case not least when Jacqui took to the boards in a production of ‘Calendar Girls’ by the local  LyneUp amateur dramatic group, playing the role of Chris whose husband dies of cancer in the play. As he usually did, Ian insisted on serving at the bar at every performance, and his were not the only eyes that did not stay dry.

NHS Borders eventually agreed to pick up the bill for his treatment and refunded the couple’s initial outlay. The treatment did indeed prolong his life by at least a year.

His victory over the system, along with others who came forward to tell their stories, saw the Scottish Government forced to react and in October last year, health secretary Alex Neil announced that there would be a new flexible approach “that will increase access to new medicines and make the system better and more open for patients.”

In future, countless Scots struck down by cancer and other rare diseases who will not even know his name will thank Ian Morrison and the other campaigners for their courage.

Yet to define him merely as ‘cancer victim’ is to deny the extraordinary substance of a truly gifted man, an entrepreneur who was in person both open and honest, with an ability to make friends easily and keep them long.

Born in Stranraer, one of three children of Jim, a warrant officer in the army, and Doreen, he had the peripatetic existence typical of a son of the military. He attended six schools in nine years, having particularly fond memories of his time in Dorset, before finally completing his education at Boroughmuir High School.

On leaving school, his father persuaded Ian to join the civil service, but his heart was not in it, and an offer to work in the retail trade, including spells at Ingliston Market,  sparked off his entrepreneurial spirit. With his lifelong friend, Ian Young, he got involved in shops such as the Jolly Jean Company.

He then became part of the 1970s Cockburn Street ‘jeans scene’ in which numerous fashion businesses were established in the winding Old Town thoroughfare that was once dubbed Scotland’s Carnaby Street.  

In 1981 he joined the then fledgling company Schuh, selling shoes from a shop in North Bridge Arcade at the top of Cockburn Street. Schuh, of course, is now one of the UK’s biggest retailers of fashion footwear.

He became sales director of the fast-expanding firm but when it was reorganised in 1988, and in order to spend more time with his young children, he quit Schuh and for some years drove a taxi, after moving his family to West Linton,

He remained an entrepreneur at heart, however, and in 1995, along with second wife Alison and dave and Pauline Murray he opened his own successful business, The Fire Side, in West Linton, selling stoves and accessories. Hundreds of homes in the Borders, Lothians and Lanarkshire are now heated by a Fire Side stove, as he had correctly anticipated the increased demand for traditional methods of heating in an age of soaring energy prices.

The move to West Linton was the making of Ian Morrison, who threw himself into every facet of life in the historic conservation village south of Edinburgh and also bought out his business partners to become owner of The Fire Side.

He was soon a stalwart of the Whipman festival, this being West Linton’s part of the Borders rideout scene. He was an excellent horseman and assisted many a saddle-sore rider in his capacity as a marshal.  He also played a full part in many other community activities, such as the local PTA.

His hobbies included power boating, skiing – he made an annual trip to Alpe d’Huez in the French Alps – and riding his motorbike, the common denominator of these pursuits being speed, though he never did anything on land or water quite as fast as the charity skydive that he once undertook.

Always the life and soul of a party, Ian Morrison would often adopt the persona of a Grinch or Grumpy Old Man, but no sooner was a laugh gained from this interlude than he would burst into smiles. Typically, he made light of his cancer with humour that was not so much black as Stygian.

The poet Norman McCaig once said of his friend Hugh McDiarmid that his passing should be commemorated with “two minutes pandemonium”. The equivalent for Ian Morrison would be two minutes of pretend cantankerousness, followed by a communal dinner at the Old Bakehouse restaurant in West Linton, a place that was almost a second home to him.  

The village of West Linton is a tight-knit community, and the mourning for this man is genuine and widespread, as he was a popular figure familiar to many. He will be very much missed by all who knew him.

Ian Morrison married thrice, to Lorraine and then Alison, by whom he had his two children, and then Jacqui. He is survived by Jacqui and his previous wives, by his mother Doreen and mother-in-law Joyce, by his siblings Margaret and Graham, and by his two daughters, Holly and Kim, and his stepchildren, Nik and Anita.

His passing will leave a gap in their lives that can never be filled, but they have all reacted to his death in a fashion that would have made him proud.

A celebration of his life will take place at Mortonhall Crematorium on Friday, 7 February 2014, at 3pm. At his request, mourners should not wear black. Nor should they expect anything other than a riotous wake afterwards in tribute to a life lived to the full with courage and passion, and cut so tragically short.

Further to this the collection at Ian celebration raised over £2500.00 for Marie Curie. Thank you to everyone what attended and contributed.