A Scots passer-by told how she held the hand of a biker and comforted him in his last minutes after a horror crash.
Mum-of-three Lesley Borland was first on the scene when the unnamed 56-year-old crashed near Fort William on the afternoon of Saturday July 17.
She took off his leather gloves to hold his hand and did everything she could to help him maintain consciousness.
"I kept telling him to sit still, don't move. He didn't look scared, he was calm. He was just looking at me the whole time while I talked to him and held his hand,” said Lesley, 32.
He died after rescue attempts failed at the scene.
Ms Borland was making her way home to Glasgow from Fort William with her partner and their twin four-year-old sons when the incident happened on the A82 at Achintore Road, Fort William.
She sprang out of the car to see if he was all right.
She said: "His friend was with him, also on a motorbike. He had been coming behind him when it happened. I think he went into shock. I gave the guy in the next car my phone to dial 999 and I went over and sat with him and I spoke to him.
"He had leather gloves on so we took them off and I just held his hand. I was just talking to him, I was saying stay awake, stay with us', he was just looking at me, listening to me talking. He didn't seem to be in any pain, he was calm, he wasn't suffering.
"I held his hand until I lost his grip and then the ambulance came and they did everything they could."
She added: "I just want more than anything to let his family know he wasn't alone, that he had someone comforting him."
Asked how she was coming to terms with such a disturbing situation, the young mum said it was still sinking in.
"I'm still in shock," she said. "I don't think it will hit me for a couple of days."
The 56-year-old biker was taken to the nearby Belford Hospital but died of his injuries.
Police have appealed for witnesses to the crash, which involved a white Triumph Tiger motorcycle and a grey Audi S3 car.
