FIONA Morag Grahame comes from an SNP family – her sister Christine is SNP MSP for Midlothian South Tweeddale and Lauderdale and her parents were influential members some years ago – but she severed her links when Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon came to power.

“I felt the SNP would now become controlled and debate would be stifled,” she told The National.

“I was by this time completely disillusioned with political parties. When the independence referendum came along my interest was rekindled when different voices could be heard. I joined the Scottish Green Party during the referendum because I wanted to see a different kind of politics emerging in Scotland.”

Grahame was born and raised in Edinburgh, and educated there and in Dundee. She was a primary teacher in the Capital, and in Orkney, where she moved 24 years ago. She was also head teacher on the island of Flotta.

“I left teaching with a desire to ‘do something completely different’ and became a home care worker working back-to-back 12 hour shifts delivering personal care to people in their own homes,” she said.

She is still a care worker, has another job with Historic Environment Scotland at Skara Brae and also runs her own online knitting business.

Grahame is a long time trade union activist, and said she didn’t know Tim Morrison or Cary Welling before the case, and had only met Phaemie Matheson at a meeting she had organised for Radical Independence.

“I was stunned by the Carmichael revelations but didn’t know what to do. Fiona MacInnes contacted me because she had started up a crowdfund to raise enough money to lodge a petition,” she said.

“She asked me if I wanted to be a petitioner. Without any hesitation, even though I knew what failure could mean, I agreed.

“I am not interested in the smear Alistair Carmichael tried to use against the First Minister of Scotland but what I totally cannot forgive was his continued deceit about his role in Frenchgate. This was a catalogue of lies to the people of Orkney and Shetland.”

Grahame is full of praise for the more than 8,000 people who have supported their crowdfunding campaign. And she has never wavered from her belief that they were doing the right thing for the right reasons.

“If you believe there has been an injustice done then you have to raise your voice and your head, stick it over the parapet and challenge those who have perpetrated that injustice.

“The people of Scotland (and beyond these shores) never fail to impress me. Without their support it would have been extremely difficult to take this case as far as we have.”

She added next year’s Scottish Parliament election would be one to watch in Orkney and Shetland: “The behaviour of the Lib Dem MSPs who represent both constituencies has been disgraceful. They have not only supported Alistair but have attacked the petitioners and their democratic right to hold their MP to account for telling lies.

“Many people in Orkney who support the petitioners have done so quietly but come election day they will have their say.”