GORDON Brown's red eyes hint at the tears to come.
However, the actor, who recently starred in I'm No A Billy – He's A Tim at the Pavilion, and the new movie, Only God Forgives, alongside Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, doesn't cry.
He fights to retain control of his emotions. And while you know this is a fight Glasgow-born Gordon loses every day, for the moment he's determined not to let go.
That's because he wants to talk about Eilidh. His daughter was just 14 when she collapsed on a school trip in February 2009.
A scan showed she had a tumour the size of a melon which was promptly removed along with her left ovary.
However, the tumour proved to be caused by malignant germ cell cancer and it was also revealed she had a form of Turner Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder which occurs in one out of 2000 girls.
Yet there was hope.
"The doctor told us it was 80 to 90% curable," Gordon recalls. "She was treated and we were told to come back for the test results, which we just knew would be positive.
"We even planned a family day afterwards to the Dr Who exhibition."
Eilidh still looked healthy, if a little thin, but tumours kept growing and didn't disappear despite the countless hours of chemotherapy and radiotherapy she endured.
"Then one day I had to tell her she wasn't going to make it," Gordon says, his voice breaking. "Can you imagine?"
The teenager passed away on March 25, 2010, after a 14 month battle with the disease – nine days short of her 16th birthday.
"I had it really bad at first," says Gordon. "I couldn't sleep. I was drinking far too much. I didn't work at all. In fact, I think about her every day. All day. Constantly."
Gordon, who once played the postman in High Road, also wants to the world to remember his daughter. That's why he and wife Nicole set up the Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund which aims to build a respite home for families of young cancer sufferers across the UK.
Their latest fundraising venture is a show at the MacRobert Centre, in Stirling. Pop band The Fratellis are reforming especially for the occasion, Billy Boyd's Beecakes band will perform and also on the bill are Tom Urie of River City, Still Game's Paul Riley and comedienne Viv Gee.
"To be honest, we didn't originally set up this charity to do good," 40-year-old Gordon admits. "Some people say to me 'It's great what you're doing'. But I didn't do it for altruistic reasons. I was being totally selfish. It was to give us a reason to get up in the morning. It was a way of keeping the connection with Eilidh, of remembering her, of keeping her here with us."
He pauses, his voice filled with emotion: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not religious. I know she's gone. But when Eilidh died, our world collapsed. I felt at the time this was the way to keep her with us.
"Now, with some time passed, helping people is beginning to sneak into the motivation.
"And I do want to help. But it's about Eilidh. If we can help some people along the way, then great."
Gordon's honesty is as humbling as the effort he's put into Eilidh's charity.
"We hope to raise money to build and maintain a purpose-built property, with the highest standard of facilities possible, for families who need a break in comfortable and safe surroundings," he says.
His inspiration for a respite home came from Calum's Cabin, a similar respite centre on the Isle of Bute, where Eilidh and her family shared their last holiday together.
"Not only did it provide some desperately needed respite," says Gordon, "it also brought great joy, especially to Eilidh and her brother and sister, Lewis and Hannah, which was priceless."
As well as coping with the loss of the daughter, fundraising has proved to be traumatic: "One woman called and offered us £20,000.
We were so delighted, we even went on television to talk about it.
"This woman revealed her daughter had died of cancer and told us she had lots of money and really wanted to give it away to a deserving cause.
"When we told her the respite house would cost £200,000 she said she would give us the total sum.
"Eventually, she sent us the cheque, but it bounced. And it transpired she didn't have the money at all. What she did have was real emotional problems."
Gordon won't admit it, but his and Nicole's story, the bid to remind the world that there are lots of Eilidhs out there, is hugely inspirational.
"She was a really quiet kid at school," he says.
"She'd be alone a lot of the time. I used to take her to school and watch her go into a corner with her dollies, always on her own, and I'd stand there from a distance and almost greet.
"Lewis saw a wee girl do this yesterday and it reminded him of Eilidh.
"Now, he should be thinking about football and girlfriends, but he can't. He's thinking about his sister.
"He can't forget. But even though they saw things they should never have seen, this loss has in some ways affected them in a positive way.
"Their characters are stronger, they're incredibly loving and very giving. They're great kids."
The focus on the house, continually evoking Eilidh's memory, has helped the healing process.
"We're almost scared to say we're doing alright, but we are. Sort of. The loss of Eilidh will never heal. We still speak about her every single night.
"But if we can help others along the way . . . "
The Eilidh Brown Memorial Concert, MacRobert Centre, Stirling, June 15
By BRIAN BEACOM