KNOWN as the "life and soul of the party", the family of West Fifer Scott Taylor were left shocked and devastated when he lost his life to suicide earlier this year.

The tragedy has spurred his auntie, Jackie Walls, into setting up a charity, Tartan Talkers, to try to stop other families going through what they have been – and are still going through – since Scott's death on March 21.

Unaware of any mental health issues with the dad-of-one, who lived in Cowdenbeath but was brought up in Rosyth, Scott's family were rocked to the core by his death with his parents, Garry and Phyllis, sister Shannon and the extended family finding it difficult to comprehend what had happened.

Jackie explained: "We were not really aware that Scott had any mental health issues. He was the life and soul of the party. He hid it well. You think you know your own, it is very misleading. Men are masters of hiding issues. They find it very difficult to speak out.

"It is brutal. With suicide, there are so many unanswered questions and what ifs. Did we miss something? You don't really get closure. You will never get the answers you are looking for and it is really, really hard.

"The short of it is, you think someone you knew so well and you can never imagine this."

Scott, who was 37 when he died, was a massive football fan and members of his beloved Tartan Army's Crossgates branch will be at the launch of the Tartan Talkers charity on Saturday.

"He was in the Dunfermline Tartan Army and in the Crossgates Tartan Army," said Jackie. "He had a wee boy, Lucas, and worshipped the ground he walked on. His second love was football. He was a massive Scotland fan. Anything Scottish, he adored.

"It is so final when you think we are never going to see him again. They have been robbed of their life. They have robbed themselves of a life that could have been so productive. If he just said listen, I am in a dark place, we would have been there. We worshipped the ground he walked on.

"He is a massive, massive loss and I don't think you ever get over the trauma of suicide. I am planning to make as much noise as I can to really get the message over. We are just doing our wee bit to try and stop any other family from going through an experience like what we went through and what Scott's mum and dad and sister went through.

"They are absolutely devastated. They are all trying to be strong for one another. It is really sad."