Former Labour politician Dennis Canavan yesterday opened up about suffering “terrible, indescribable bouts of depression” after four of his children died.
The ex-Falkirk MP and MSP laid bare the tragedies in an interview with BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme.
“I find it difficult to speak about it but the death of a child is the worst thing that can happen to any mum or dad,” he said.
“Any bereavement in a family is a sad thing but it’s against the whole natural cycle of life for a child to die before you and in my case it happened not just once or twice or three times but four times.
I still find it very, very difficult to comprehend. I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes asking myself ‘Is this true? Or has it just been a bad dream?’
“Very sadly, it is not a dream, it is reality and I have just got to face up to it. I do suffer from terrible, indescribable bouts of depression at times but I’ve got to struggle on.”
Asked by presenter Gordon Brewer about how the deaths had affected his religious faith, Dennis added: “I think it has probably strengthened it.
“I know that in my case, that if I didn’t believe in God and in a life hereafter, I think my depression would be even worse.
"I take some consolation from the fact that I believe my four deceased children are in God’s company, they are not dead in every respect – their spirit lives on.”
Dennis, who stood down from Holyrood in 2007, lost his daughter Ruth, 49, in 2017 His eldest son Mark died in March 2007 aged 41 after a three-year battle with motor neurone disease.
Heartbroken man met love of his life, married her and buried her all in one year
His second son Dennis died in December 2006 from a brain tumour aged 35.
Dennis lost his third son Paul to skin cancer aged 16 in 1989.
The 76-year-old also has a son, Adam, 16.
