A GLASGOW campaigner has appeared on national television calling for more support for families who have lost loved ones abroad.

Julie Love MBE, from Maryhill, launched her campaign after her son Colin drowned in the Caribbean in 2009.

The 51-year-old appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Monday morning where she spoke of the lack of dignity shown to her son by overseas police.

She said the 23-year-old’s body was left lying on the beach while his friends and the boat they were travelling on left.

READ MORE: Dad’s heartbreak as wife dies with no closure over son’s unsolved killing on Spanish stag do

Julie was ‘advised’ not to travel to Venezuela to retrieve his body on account that it would delay the repatriation process.

The Foreign Office instead suggested he be cremated and the ashes flown back to Glasgow.

Speaking on the breakfast show, she added: “I got a phone call from the captain of the ship and he basically gave me details to contact the embassy in Venezuela.

“At that point I didn’t know if he had gone overboard on the ship – I had no idea.

“I found out that the ship Colin was on left and so did his friends.

READ MORE: Family of tragic Kirsty Maxwell speak out one year after her death

“The foreign office put pressure on me not to go over and to have him cremated but I wanted to be with him.

“I still regret to this day that I didn’t go out because of the time it took to bring him home. 

“They said it could delay his repatriation for me to go but it still took three weeks to bring him home.”

She continued: “Every day you go through what happened. How dare they treat my son like that?

“Why were we let down so badly?”

Julie, who is an Evening Times Scotswoman of the Year finalist, set up the first charity of its kind in the UK – DAYNA – Death Abroad You Are Not Alone.

Her campaigning work also paved the way for a change in fatal accident inquiry laws in Scotland.

READ MORE: 'I pray he didn’t hear the van' - Mum opens up about her grief one year after son was killed on way home from school

Hannah Bardell MP, who is supporting the family of Kirsty Maxwell, who fell to her death from balcony in Benidorm, also appeared on the show to discuss what needs to be done.

She explained: “I set up the group just over two months ago as I have two constituents who have died under suspicious circumstances abroad.

“Time and time again we hear the same stories. 

“We respect the fact that police abroad have a difficult job.

“I don’t understand how the foreign office, with all their expertise, can’t have a central point of contact with a single point of contact.

“People are trying to get documents translated and families have to crowdfund to get the bodies home.

“We’re looking a peripheral things including airports. Some have had to go on flights with stag dos, people going on holiday.

“It cannot be unrealistic to expect decent resources and services. These are British taxpayers who pay to go on holiday.

“The countries are happy to take their money and at the end of the day people deserve a decent level of support.”