Broadcaster Kirsty Wark has spoken about the loss of her father to lung cancer. The Newsnight presenter gave a personal account of how the illness affected her family as she teamed up with singer Sharleen Spiteri, whose father also suffered from the disease.

Broadcaster Kirsty Wark has spoken about the loss of her father to lung cancer.

The Newsnight presenter gave a personal account of how the illness affected her family as she teamed up with singer Sharleen Spiteri, whose father also suffered from the disease, to raise funds for care centres.

The Scots are both backing the launch of an Orla Kiely designed limited- edition bag.

Wark, who is a patron of the Maggie's cancer charity, said: "My father was pretty much invincible, so the diagnosis of lung cancer in 1993 was a shock.

"Looking back, I realise that the signs were there - the smoking, though he had given up in the last couple of years, spurred on, I think, by the arrival of his much-loved grandchildren, the hacking cough I would hear from the bathroom in the morning, and the greying of a handsome face that was usually weather-beaten from weekends spent on the rivers and lochs of south Ayrshire."

Her father James was still the senior partner in a Glasgow law firm at the age of 70 and there was no hint of him retiring.

Wark added: "For someone who was outgoing, entertaining and hugely knowledgeable, especially about history, he was a very private man in many ways, fishing alone, or reading and smoking into the early hours.

"Growing up, there was always a thin silver box of cigarettes in the house.

"Smoking was his stress buster, I suppose, and I remember sitting in his office as he took a call from a difficult elderly client - I marvelled at how he appeared to demolish his cigarette in one long drag."

Wark has been a patron of Maggie's, the cancer caring charity, for 10 years.

She added: "When my father was diagnosed, he felt that he had to deal with it alone, that he couldn't discuss it with us because it was too upsetting, which was hard for us because we couldn't mention it.

"I think that had there been a Maggie's Centre at the time that dad was diagnosed he might not have used it, but I would have.

"When his cancer was diagnosed I really didn't expect him to talk about it, because he knew that it was terminal. The prognosis was six months without chemo, 18 months if he took the treatment.

"He left it to mum to tell me, and although I was devastated and desperate to talk to him, I couldn't put him through that distress."

Spiteri agreed immediately to help with the butterfly stem print maxi bag initiative. She said: "It's a very personal thing, choosing which charity to get involved with.

"My father had prostate cancer a couple of years ago, and while it's a very curable cancer, and our alarm bells didn't go mental, cancer has hit my family so I understand what a great thing Maggie's does."

The Herald's own Friends of Maggie's campaign, which featured an eco-friendly carrier bag designed by Scottish design studio Timorous Beasties, contributed more than £650,000 to the charity. During that campaign, Wark donated her recipe for banana bread to a local deli to raise money.