GORDON Ross is described today as a campaigner for assisted suicide - I never saw him quite like that.

In fact when he decided to go to court seeking the right to help to die, his membership of Friends at the End had lapsed.

He probably spoke to me with more passion about Scottish and UK politics - which he continued to follow with interest - than he did about his legal challenge.

But he had the courage of his convictions, despite a body which shook so hard from Parkinson's disease he was unable to travel to Edinburgh for the court case about his own life.

When I first interviewed him almost two years ago, I said something at the beginning about him just letting me know if he had had enough. I was assured, with good humour, there was no danger of him holding back to be polite.

Fortunately for me he tolerated my questions on a number of occasions, even when his limbs would not stay still or speech was difficult.

Somehow the room in his care home, with its family photos and stream of visitors, had a warmth about it. One friend tells me the last time she saw Gordon they had a good laugh over some scurrilous gossip.

Mr Ross was never suicidal when I met him, he just wanted to know if he reached that point someone could help him and not be prosecuted. He was a real individual who in his last, difficult years took on a legal system which did not necessarily do a great job of recognising that.