My dad died on holiday and I'm running a marathon in his honour

Stuart Caldwell lost his father James on holiday in Fuerteventura. 

The grandfather was visiting the Canary Islands last summer with his daughter Lindsey and her nine-year-old twins Noah and John Kerr.

Tragically, three days into the holiday he slipped at the side of the swimming pool and banged his head, causing a bleed on the brain. 

He was flown by air ambulance to Gran Canaria and while he underwent six hours of brain surgery, Stuart flew from Glasgow to be at his dad’s side. 

The surgery was deemed a success, and doctors were starting to see signs of progress, but a week later, the family received the devastating news that James had suffered a cardiac arrest in the middle of the night and passed away. 

Caldwell family (Image: Supplied)

Stuart Caldwell (Image: Supplied)

James Caldwell (Image: Supplied)

Stuart said: “My dad's nurse explained this may have been due to the fact his heart was having to work so much harder as he was still fighting the injury to the head."

He had to endure the hardest journey of his life, bringing his dad home from Spain. 

After waiting for an aircraft big enough to carry a coffin, Stuart returned with his dad on a repatriation flight to Manchester, before being driven up to Glasgow. 

He said: “It’s the thing I’m most proud of, I got on that flight and came home with my dad because I wanted to be with him all the way home."

Stuart chose a seat at the back of the aircraft to distance himself from the holidaymaker and his dad’s coffin was placed in a special cargo section of the plane. 

But when the captain announced the flight was fully boarded and they were ready to depart, his emotions took over. 

He said: “It was just so final, I was absolutely wailing. There was a little girl and her family next to me and she said, ‘Daddy, why is that man crying, is it because he’s going home from his holiday.” 

"It was a moment that lightened a very difficult situation.

“It was just very surreal to know my dad was with me on that flight, but I wanted to do that journey with him. If felt, in a way, like the last leg of the journey."

Stuart is getting ready to run the Adidas Manchester Marathon this weekend to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation. 

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James was just 62 when he died but he had previously suffered a heart attack when he was 59. 

His son said: “He got out of the hospital in Glasgow on the day of his 60th birthday and we threw a party in his house.

“After that, he made an effort to live a healthy lifestyle because the first heart attack really did give him a fright.” 

A former area manager with Scottish Water, James retired in his fifties and loved travelling and spending time with his children. 

Stuart said: “He was a typical papa, doted on his grandkids and he’d gone on holiday with my sister because her twins loved being with their papa. 

“He and I had been in Malaga earlier that year and he’d also been to Dubai and Las Vegas in recent years.”