How loss of brother shaped Smith's rugby journey

The highs and lows of elite sport can take a personal toll on even the most resilient of characters, but Ollie Smith has been through moments in his life far tougher than anything rugby can throw at him.

In 2019, Smith's older brother, Patrick, a chemical engineering student at the University of Edinburgh, was at a house party when he fell from a third-floor window. He was pronounced dead at the scene, aged just 21.

"Nothing can prepare you for that day," the Glasgow Warriors back tells the BBC's Scotland Rugby Podcast as he recalls the phone call from his dad to tell him his brother had passed away.

"I remember my dad being almost like a rock for us and he just seemed to be strong through the whole thing - and we could really lean on that when we were trying to figure out what was really happening.

"I think having that support network around us, because no-one who's not been through it themselves really knows what to say to someone in that situation, the people that we had around us really helped kind of get us back."

Smith recalls that Patrick did not share his love of rugby – "he grew tall quite early, was stuck in the second row and hated it" – and focused instead on swimming at university.

While his brother may not have been a rugby fan, Smith feels driven to honour Patrick by making the most of whatever opportunities the game may afford him and tackle any disappointments along the way - such as the horror knee injury that cost him more than a year of his career - with a sense of perspective.

"The way I look at it is that I'm still having the opportunity to live out my dream and that's something that my brother didn't get to do," the 25-year-old said.

"He didn't even finish his uni degree and he was so smart. I have no idea what he would have done after uni, but I'm sure he would have loved it. I've had the opportunity to carry out this dream of mine and still go on with it.

"It puts it into perspective. Everyone goes through these hardships and it's another thing you realise in rugby - I'm not the only one that's gone through something like this.

"I know multiple people who have had the same thing and I think you really count your blessings of how lucky I am as an individual to still be living my dream."

And he added: "Having gone through this hard thing is difficult for the whole family and I'm not taking away from that, but it allows you to be more positive and take those hits in your stride rather than dwelling on things that maybe are going wrong in your own life.

"You're still having the opportunity to still be here and still live the dream and have a good life."

As a way of extracting something positive from the pain of the sudden loss of his brother, Smith is a dedicated campaigner for blood donation, something Patrick was also passionate about.

"My sister, one of her friends, my dad and my uncle all kind of got together to set up a blood donation charity, which was something that my brother was a massive driver for," Smith said.

"So they set this up for that purpose, to kind of leave a legacy for Patrick and also to educate people about how important it can be to donate blood.

"The recent figures ScotBlood posted last week, that donations have dropped under 2% in Scotland for the last year, it's something that we're trying to change and grow awareness.

"We have our Young Ambassador Programme, myself and one of the other girls, Megan, at the charity, we've been going into schools to help educate pupils. And we get some of the sixth-year students to set up the initiative in their school.

"We also have our Bloody Brilliant Uni Squad at places like Edinburgh, Stirling, to really grow education around blood donation and show that it's not as daunting as it maybe seems.

"We've grown over the last six years and had loads of brilliant events, so it's been nice over the past few years that something that was so dark for our family, something so good has come out of it."

Smith will run out at Hampden Park to face Edinburgh in the first leg of the 1872 Cup on Saturday and, while he says Patrick may not have had much interest in the action itself, he would have relished such a special occasion.

"I don't know if he would have been even slightly bothered about my rugby exploits, to be honest," Smith smiles.

"He was never really a fan. I think maybe he would have enjoyed the big events, to say that he'd been in a big stadium or something like that, but I don't think he was very bothered about the actual ins and outs of rugby.

"I think it's brilliant [to play at Hampden]. We see Scotstoun as a fortress and the Warrior Nation are so important for us in these home games, especially these big home games."

Now he comes face-to-face with some Scotland colleagues at what is better known as the national football stadium.

"You spend so much time with those Edinburgh boys in camp and you get to know them really well and then to face them twice a year back-to-back in these big stadiums, you want them to be proper occasions," Smith added.

"I think Hampden allows more home support for us to make it a bit more hostile for them.

"We still retain the 1872 Cup, but I think it just shows the kind of standards that we set ourselves at the start of the season to be like, we're not just happy to retain the 1872 Cup, we want to win both games. That's the focus this year."