Baby's remains brought to mum in supermarket bag

Lydia Reid was "horrified" when officials arrived with a plastic carrier bag

A terminally ill mother says she was "horrified" after her baby's remains were brought her in a supermarket carrier bag by NHS officials.

Lydia Reid's son Gary was a week old when he died in 1975.

She later discovered his organs had been removed for tests without her permission and only received his remains last month after almost 50 years of campaigning.

NHS Lothian said it had since apologised to Ms Reid.

The 74-year-old, who is in an Edinburgh hospital with bowel cancer, told BBC Scotland she was visited last month by two senior NHS officials.

• Mum gets baby son's remains after 48-year fight

• Mother on hunger strike over baby's 'lost' remains

"I thought they were coming to help me sign some papers. When they arrived I noticed one of them was carrying a Sainsbury's carrier bag," Ms Reid said.

Inside the carrier bag was a six-inch box containing samples taken from Gary which had been used in tests without her permission.

"It knocked me for six and was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life," Ms Reid said.

"I was so shocked and said 'How dare you. That is the only parts of my son I have and you want to hand them to me in a carrier bag?'

"I was absolutely horrified. When I told my son, Steven, he was dumbfounded."

The officials then took the remains back and they were sent to the undertaker.

The exhumed coffin in 2017, which was not prepared by NHS Lothian, contained items including a shroud and a cross

An NHS Lothian spokeswoman denied Ms Reid's claim that she was asked to look inside the box by the officials.

Tracey Gillies, medical director for NHS Lothian said: "I would like to repeat publicly the apology we made to Ms Reid in person for the upset and distress this has caused.

"The samples that formed part of the investigation were placed in a dignity wooden casket to be returned to Ms Reid while she was in hospital.

"This was then placed within a plastic bag to avoid drawing attention as they walked through the hospital.

"We are sincerely sorry for the additional distress this caused. Our teams met with Ms Reid to ensure all efforts were made to fulfil her wishes."

Ms Reid checked out of hospital for a day to bury her son's remains in Saughton Cemetery in Edinburgh on Saturday.

The coffin was exhumed from a plot at Saughton Cemetery in Edinburgh

Ms Reid has been a leading figure in the Scottish campaign to expose how hospitals unlawfully retained dead children's body parts for research.

The NHS in Scotland was forced to admit the widespread practice after an investigation into organ retention at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.

About 6,000 organs and tissues were kept by Scottish hospitals between 1970 and 2000, many from children.

Ms Reid said that when she asked to see her son a few days after he died in 1975, she was shown a different child.

Over the years, she discovered her son's organs had been removed. Pieces would be shaved off for microscope tests, without Ms Reid's permission, and the rest were stored in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Ms Reid said she still does not know what happened to the rest of Gary's body.

Prof Sue Black said she had never seen anything like it

In September 2017, a court order was granted which allowed an exhumation to be carried out at Saughton Cemetery in Edinburgh.

Forensic anthropologist Prof Dame Sue Black concluded the coffin had been buried without containing any human remains.

A shawl, a hat, a cross and a name tag were found in the burial plot, as well as the disintegrated coffin - but no skeletal remains and no sign of decomposition.

Prof Black told BBC Scotland at the time: "Ultimately there is only one possible logical explanation - and that is that the body was not put in that coffin."

However, the Crown Office said a new investigation by independent experts had concluded Gary had been buried at the time of his death.

It also found no evidence of criminality or unlawful organ retention.

Ms Reid has campaigned for years to find out what happened to her son, and camped outside the Crown Office in Edinburgh while on hunger strike in 2022.

She said finally she had her son's remains returned when Labour MSP Foysol Choudhury and his assistant, Liz Catterall, intervened.

Mr Choudhury said: "When I asked NHS staff to meet Lydia to help her fill out the necessary forms, so that Gary's remains could be transferred back into her care, we did not expect Gary's remains to be brought to this meeting.

"Not only was this surprise action inappropriate and unsettling, but Gary's remains were shockingly brought to that meeting in a plastic supermarket carrier bag.

"Lydia has been fighting for justice for Gary for 48 years and then she found out that her baby son's remains were carried around in a plastic bag. This is absolutely shocking and was incredibly disrespectful.

"NHS Lothian have offered unreserved apologies but these events show that more training is needed to ensure sensitive and appropriate behaviour in the delivery of NHS services."

• Some details in this article were updated after its original publication.