Danielle McCallum, who passed away after becoming ill in Ibiza, will be laid to rest today.

Hundreds are expected to turn out to pay their respects to the 18-year-old at Wellpark Mid Kirk.

Her parents Tracy Alexander and Scott Docherty and step-grandfather Andy McDonald recently returned home after they rushed out to the holiday island when they learned of the tragedy.

Andy, 48, who is the partner of Tracy’s mum Margaret, said: “We just went into autopilot and kept hoping that it wasn’t going to be her, that it was going to be somebody else.

“Although we knew it really was her we were all hoping that it was a big mistake.

“We went to see her in the chapel of rest and she looked as if she was just sleeping.

“I went into see her as well for Tracy’s sake, for a shoulder to cry on.

“She just broke down when she saw her.

“Once we saw her we knew, but none of us wanted to believe it.

“Tracy kept sitting there talking about her as if she was still there.” The family reluctantly returned to Greenock on Saturday 26 September and had to wait another five days before Danielle’s body was flown back home.

Mr McDonald said: “It was very difficult leaving her there because we knew that would be the last time we would see her.

“I think the hardest part was knowing that she died out there alone.

“It happens every day in life, but you don’t think it’s going to happen to one of your own.” Danielle, who lived in Trafalgar Street with her pet dog Spike, died in intensive care in the Can Misses Hospital on 22 September Her step-grandfather says that she had fallen into the hotel pool on Thursday night into Friday morning and was then treated at a private clinic for a damaged tailbone.

She spent the rest of the weekend confined to bed and taking painkillers but she had to call for an ambulance early on Tuesday morning.

Danielle sent her mum a desperate messaged on Facebook which said: “Help me, I think I’m dying.” There were initial claims made in the national press that she had taken ecstacy but her family have strongly denied this.

Mr McDonald says the coroner’s report states that Danielle died of renal failure and heart failure.

But her loved ones will have to wait up to eight months for a toxicology report to ascertain what caused this.

Mr McDonald said: “Nobody knows whether it was painkillers in her system. We won’t know until the toxicology report to stop anymore speculation.” But the family know that regardless of the outcome it will not change the terrible fact that Danielle has gone.

Mr McDonald said: “I don’t think Tracy will ever get over it — she will never be forgotten.

“She was the eldest and she and Tracy were very close. She went round to her mum’s every day, or she went round to Danielle’s house.” He paid a touching tribute to the outgoing youngster, saying: “She was beautiful, bubbly and liked socialising.

“She was an intelligent wee lassie and happy-go-lucky.

“She’d done a science course for a year and a half at West College and dropped out but she was talking about going back to college and had applied for a job.

“A modelling agency in London had approached her as well, she had a bright future in front of her whether she went back to college or if something came out of the modelling.

“It’s a terrible waste, the same for any young person who dies.” In a cruel twist of fate Mr McDonald also said that Danielle hadn’t been overly concerned about going away on the ill-fated sunshine trip.

He said: “If she hadn’t gone it wouldn’t have bothered her because she hadn’t been out with the friends she was going with for a while.

“It had been booked for a while and she didn’t want to lose any money.” He says Danielle’s mum Tracy, who is 37 and lives with her husband Paul in the east end, has been bravely trying to come to terms with what has happened for her other children Lauren, who’s 17, Dylan, 12, and eight-year-old Caitlin.

But the teenager’s loss has devastated the whole family, with Tracy’s stunned mum Margaret taking it very badly.

Mr McDonald said: “She just sits there quietly then starts to cry.” Mr McDonald says that the family appreciate all the tributes and kind messages from Danielle’s friends and the wider community.

He told the Tele: “It has helped them. I think we probably expected it because she was so popular.” He also thanked the British Consulate and Thomas Cook for providing free flights and accommodation.

Mr McDonald said: “Thomas Cook bent over backwards and we especially want to thank their rep Emma and the British Consulate for pursuing police. They came and took statements from us last Friday.” Danielle’s funeral will be held at Wellpark Mid Kirk Church tomorrow at 1pm and she will be buried at Knocknairshill Cemetery.