'We still don't know why'

MP David Stewart and his wife Linda suffered heartache when they lost their eight-month-old son Liam to cot death.

It was a spring morning in 1991 when the couple awoke to find their baby lying motionless where he had fallen into a perfectly peaceful slumber the evening before.

"He had died in his sleep during the night," recalls Linda. "One of the most difficult things to accept is that no one knows why it happened.
No one has ever given us an explanation."

And the couple insist that nothing could have alerted them. Despite having been induced two weeks early, Liam seemed to suffer no ill effects.

"He looked very small but was gaining weight like any other perfectly normal baby," says Linda. "Liam was very healthy and never suffered from any illnesses apart from a slight cold and a snuffle."

It was their tragic personal experience that led the Labour MP - now Parliamentary Private Secretary to Secretary Of State For Scotland Alistair Darling - to campaign for more Government research into the syndrome.

Ten years on, the Stewarts still make every effort to keep Liam's memory alive in their family with eldest son Andrew and daughter Kirsty.