A COUPLE who run a successful garden equipment business in one of Scotland's most remote communities say they are being forced to consider selling up and leaving because of changes to medical cover in the area.

Stewart and Judy Pote moved their established company from Yorkshire to the township of Achnaha at the western end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula three years ago and dispatch wooden wheelbarrows and seedboxes, cloches and garden tables to destinations across the UK, Europe and the US.

However, Mrs Pote, who has terminal cancer, and her husband, who was a thalidomide child and lost his legs when he was just two-and-a-half years old, now fear plans to reorganise vital health services in the area will leave them without the necessary medical cover and with no option but to move away from the area.

Mr Pote, 51, said: "We have put everything into coming here. It wasn't a five-minute decision to move. Now we must seriously think about moving. It is heartbreaking."

Their concerns come as last-ditch meetings are being scheduled over the issue, which will come to a head next month when the area will lose its 24-hour nursing cover. The local GPs, based 40 minutes away in Acharacle, have announced they intend to opt out of providing out-of-hours cover as well.

It will leave the 250 residents of the villages of Kilchoan, Glenborrodale, Portuairk, Sanna and Kilmory with the nearest ambulance almost an hour away at Strontian while the next one is in Mallaig, which can take two hours. The hospital at Fort William is two hours away when the Corran ferry is off during the night.

NHS Highland has offered replacement cover, which includes a plan to train emergency responders, drawn from people such as ex-doctors and ex-nurses living in the area, but members of the community remain concerned they will be left without adequate cover.

Mr Pote said his wife Judy, 48, had taken a couple of turns recently which had made them think seriously about the future. With what is being proposed for the NHS in Ardnamurchan, she said she wouldn't feel safe any more.

Mr Pote added: "We used to come up on holiday and had bought a holiday house which we have had for six years or so.

"After our children went to university we thought we could move our business from Yorkshire up here.

"So we managed to buy some land for a purpose-built base with workshops and storage. Our company, Over the Garden Wall, sources everything locally and we mostly use the local Post Office to dispatch sales.

"We were quite big down in Yorkshire and we could grow again, but coming up here wasn't about the money, it was about a change in our lifestyle. My wife has terminal cancer, but we didn't want to give up and just go out for walks every day and we enjoy our work.

"Judy has been given a few years and is better than perhaps she was expected to be. She has to go down to Glasgow every six weeks, but that is planned. It is what happens in between and really worries us."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said last week she was willing to meet MSPs and representatives to discuss out-of-hours cover in West Ardnamurchan.

Mr Pote added: "I feel like going down to the Scottish Parliament and tying myself to the railings to highlight what is happening here."

Gill McVicar, Mid Highland Community Health Partnership general manager, said: "NHS Highland has a responsibility to ensure core community nursing services are maintained for the population of West Ardnamurchan and we are working with the SAS [Staff and Associate Specialists] and the local community to come up with a model that is safe and feels safe."