Mother dies hours after buying motorbike

A MOTHER of two was killed in a crash just hours after buying her first motorbike.

Sharon Topping, 38, died on the busy A9 after her bike left the road just south of Pitlochry and collided with the central reservation.

Her 40-year-old husband Stephen, who was travelling behind on his motorbike, then collided with her machine.

Mrs Topping, of Dalcruin Gardens, Moodiesburn, was pronounced dead at the scene on Saturday evening, despite the efforts of a passing doctor and nurse and of a trauma team from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

Last night Mr Topping led tributes to his "beautiful and outgoing" wife and mother of their two sons Aydan, 16, and Rhys, 12. He told how his wife had bought her Honda CG125 motorbike on the morning of the day she died.

He said: "Sharon was very outgoing. She was always up for trying new things. She did a parachute jump for the first time last year.

"She had taken motorbike lessons without me knowing, and she passed her CBT (compulsory basic training] last Tuesday.

"I came back last week and she was wearing the biking leathers," he said.

"I wasn't happy but she felt very confident in riding the bike and with her being so outgoing it's difficult to say no."

Mr Topping said his wife had been looking at bikes for sale all week on the internet auction website eBay and eventually bought one on Saturday morning. He said the bike she chose was "the one she really wanted" and they decided to pick it up that afternoon.

They then arranged that she would drive her new vehicle home as he followed behind her on his own motorcycle, a Honda Pan European. They were travelling south on the A9 when the accident happened.

He said: "We'd been driving for a couple of hours that day and we kept stopping every wee while to see how it was going.

"She kept saying 'this is brill', 'this is great'.

"We had rules that I was always behind her."

He revealed: "She was startled by an oncoming vehicle and she had to take an action to move to the outside lane.

"She couldn't stop and she hit the reservation.

"I ran up to her and put her on her back. There was no pulse, but I started breathing into her mouth. I wasn't trained in CPR, but I didn't know what else to do.

"I knew immediately she was dead but I didn't want to believe it. I was in a state of shock."

Mr Topping said he and his wife were childhood sweethearts — she had asked him out when she was 16, and the couple had been together ever since. He said he had been in a "state of shock" since the accident.

"I'm drained," Mr Topping said. It's blurry and I'm still in shock."

"She was a beautiful, loving, hard-working mother. We loved food and drink and always went for curries and wine. I'm really going to miss her.

"There have been lots of cards and messages through the door. The funeral will be in memory of her life."

Mrs Topping was a store manager with Argos in East Kilbride. A spokeswoman for the company said: "We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of our valued colleague, Sharon Topping, in a road accident at the weekend. "