Alex Salmond’s niece has spoken of her family’s pride in the former first minister ahead of a memorial service.
The 69-year-old, who also served the north-east as an MP and MSP, died from a heart attack at a conference in North Macedonia on October 12.
He was laid to rest in his home village of Strichen last month, with a memorial service to be held at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh tomorrow.
His niece, Christina Hendry, is set to pay tribute to her uncle during the service.
Christina is youth co-convener of the Alba Party – founded and led by Mr Salmond – and travelled to Holyrood to view a book of condolence following his death.
She told BBC News: “It has given us a chance to think back on everything he did and just how, I think, how proud we are of him and everything he did.
“Uncle Alex always spoke about his love for Scotland and I think that’s what we’re going with.
“We knew how much uncle Alex loved Scotland, loved Scottish culture, loved the Scottish arts.
“We want it to be about Scotland and about uncle Alex and how much he valued Scotland and saw Scotland’s potential for the future for independence.”
Miss Hendry also said the family is “doing what uncle Alex would tell us to do and just keeping going”.
Tomorrow’s service will take place at 11am and will be live-streamed on the BBC Scotland News website and BBC iPlayer.
It will feature a performance from The Proclaimers and tributes from acting Alba Party leader Kenny MacAskill and Mr Salmond’s former lawyer Duncan Hamilton KC.
A statement from Mr Salmond’s family earlier this month said: “The family are overwhelmed by the level of public interest in attending Alex’s memorial service.
“Sadly, we cannot accommodate everyone who would like to attend but are pleased to say that the event will be live-streamed from St Giles’ Cathedral, with the service scheduled to begin at 11am on Saturday, November 30.”
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