John Crawford's late mother Barbara moved in with him and his wife in the village of Kildonan on Arran following the death of his father in 2020.
She had vascular dementia, which affected her balance and short-term memory.
"She had been coming to Arran for 80 years, and she still had all the happy memories. Her disease meant that Arran felt more like home to her than anywhere else.
"She enjoyed going to Bay Stores to pick up her paper and to meet with a group of ladies for coffee at the small table in the shop.
"Every time we had to travel to the mainland together, she told us how she hated leaving the island because she worried about dying before she could come home.
"For one trip to Tokyo to visit my son in March 2025 we managed to get her respite care at Montrose House so she could stay on the island.
"When I went to pick her up she didn’t want to come home. She loved Montrose House and felt she was too much of a burden living with us.
"Following an infection, her dementia deteriorated to the point where we could no longer manage to keep her safe at home.
"We worked with the social work department to find a suitable care home for her and had to explain that Montrose House was not an option due to a lack of space.
"So we found her a place in Troon near the ferry terminal to make it as easy as possible for people from the island to visit her.
"The current ferry situation makes it hard for foot passengers to leave and return to the island on the same day.
"When she realised she had to leave the island, she was devastated. Despite being declared medically fit at the hospital on departure from Arran, she died in the care home two weeks later.
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"I have since learned that, around the same time, two other ladies had to leave the island to find a care home. They also died within a few weeks.
"Whilst the move to a care home usually happens close to the end of life, more than 60% of residents are still alive 12 months after arrival.
"The numbers are too small to draw conclusions, but three deaths within a few weeks of leaving the island are, at the very least, remarkable.
"What happens if, as the numbers rise, the statistics show that the lack of care home places on the island results in premature death?
"Who will take responsibility? Has the analysis been done to show that cutting funds to Montrose House will save more years of life than it costs? And what about the quality of those years?"
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