Willie's Law being campaigned for by Alva family

Willie Johnston was in the intensive care unit in the Perth Royal Infirmary when documents were put in front of him.

Willie signed the papers, unknowingly transferring more than £400,000 and a liife insurance policy to his business partner instead of his family, shortly before he died.

Afterwards, his family learned that this was entirely legal, with no framework in place preventing vulnerable people from signing important documents.

Now, the Johnston family are campaigning to introduce Willie’s Law to ensure that vulnerable people will remain protected when in hospital or are unable to competently sign off on important documents.

Willie’s daughter Laura Johnston-Brand is spearheading the campaign and told the Advertiser why she was encouraged to launch the petition for Willie’s Law.

She said: “When my dad was terminally ill, he was in the ICU in Perth and documents were put in front of him by a solicitor and business partner.

“These devalued his estate and handed over a large insurance policy to his business partner.

“Obviously, this wasn’t what dad intended to do – he was on morphine in the hospital in his final days and very vulnerable.

“The solicitor was found guilty of misconduct on five accounts but the most shocking thing to us was it was completely legal because there’s not the same protection for vulnerable people in Scotland compared to England.

“We then started Willie’s Law in honour of my dad – a campaign to make sure that documents placed in front of vulnerable people have a doctor co-sign them so that they are able to ensure that there is no coercion and that they are capable of knowing what they are signing.”

Under Willie’s Law, a doctor would have to co-sign any documents placed in front of people in their care.

This would cover people who are terminally ill, have poor mental health, dementia or autism or are unable to sign off a document capably.

The campaign was started by Laura and her family but has since grown to encompass volunteers from across Scotland.

She has started a Facebook page which has attracted significant membership and help in spreading the word.

She continued: “Bringing this law in would allow vulnerable people to advocate for themselves as well as medical professionals advocating for their patients.

“It would also mean that people who are in a frail and vulnerable state – such as in ICU, suffering from poor mental health, have dementia or autism – will not have documents placed in front of them.

“There must be a doctor there to say a capacity assessment has been carried out, they would make sure they know what they are signing and they’re not getting coerced.

“We understand that people will find loopholes but this will make people stop and think before they are able to take advantage of someone in a vulnerable state.”

During their campaigning, members of the Willie’s Law Facebook page have been handing out leaflets to raise awareness of their petition.

Three members of the group – including Willie’s granddaughters – headed to Stirling city centre to do some campaigning.

CAMPAIGN: Ocanu Johnston Brand, dog Dante, Lynn McLeish and Rochmay Johnston-Brand campaigned in Stirling over the weekend. (Image: Laura Johnston-Brand)

Further campaign events can be found on the Facebook page, alongside progress updates from the petition.

“The campaign is going good,” Laura added. “We’ve had great support from MPs and MSPs, the petition went before the Citizen’s Participation Committee and they agreed that investigation needed to be done.

“They’re carrying it forward and hopefully they’ll hear the petition once everyone is back from holiday.

“We’ve had a lot of support from everyone we talk to so that can only be a good thing.

“I think a lot of people we’re talking to are surprised that this isn’t already a law and are shocked that we have to go through this whole process so people are aware of what they are signing.

“We’ve had a lot of people come forward and tell us that this has happened to them.

“To be able to protect vulnerable is so important – if you can’t protect the most vulnerable people in society, then who are you protecting?

“We want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anybody ever again.”