Mackenzie Elizabeth Colligan — affectionately known as Kenzie — was just six weeks old and a picture of health when she inexplicably died on November 7, 2007.

She was found in her cot in the early hours of the morning by her mum, Joanna Reekie, after she failed to wake for her usual 5 a.m. feed.

Twenty-three year-old Joanna had to wait almost three weeks while a post-mortem was carried out before she could lay her little girl to rest, but the findings were inconclusive.

The words every parent fears, 'sudden infant death syndrome', were recorded on her death certificate.

Fourteen months on, Joanna has only just found the emotional strength to dismantle the wooden cot that Kenzie never had the chance to sleep in, as she's passing it on to her younger sister Lauren, who's expecting her first baby in May.

She couldn't bear to keep the Moses basket in which Kenzie died and it was taken away, but her home in Cameron Drive is filled with photographs and mementoes of her beloved daughter.

Even her feeding bottles are still lined up in the kitchen, a constant but somehow comforting reminder of their precious few weeks together.

At Christmas, Joanna cut a favourite photograph of Kenzie into a star shape and put it on top of the tree — her own little angel.

Joanna said: "Mackenzie was born in Forth Park Hospital on September 25, 2007, weighing 5lb 4oz.

"It was a straightforward delivery and she was a perfectly healthy baby.

"I did take her to the doctor when she had a bad bout of colic, but apart from that she was fine.

"Everyone used to say what a beautiful baby she was.

"The night she died she hadn't been able to settle, but that wasn't unusual for her.

"She finally went to sleep at about 2.30 a.m. and I went to feed her at 5 a.m., which was the time she woke every morning. That was when I found her."

Now Joanna is channelling her energy into fund-raising for the Scottish Cot Death Trust, an organisation she says helped her through her darkest days thanks to their befriending scheme.

She's already raised over £300 through collecting tins in local shops and plans more fund-raising activities that she hopes will spread awareness of cot death as well as cash for research.

"About 300 babies die every year in the UK for no apparent reason, " she said.

"Yet the Scottish Cot Death Trust receives no government funding and has to rely on donations.

"I felt I wanted something positive to come from Kenzie's death and that's why I want to do all I can to help.

"Cot death is something that you never think will happen to you and when it does it's heartbreaking — all the more so because you don't know why your baby died and never will.

"One day I would like to have more children, but nothing can ever take away the pain of losing Mackenzie. No-one will ever compare to her."