xsl parameters - unbelievably frustrating

Hi,
can some one PLEASE shed some light on an issue I have passing a simple parameter from Vb to XSLT. Basically all I want to do is pass a single parameter to an XSLT page source below.
The parameter is not picked up by the CSL page. Any help very greatly appreciated, I am pulling my hair out with this.......

XSL:
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0">

<xsl:template match="/">

<xsl:param name="orderthis" />

The parameter value was: <xsl:value-of select="$orderthis"/>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Address Book</TITLE>
<LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="normal.css"></LINK>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<CENTER>
<IMG src="images/BIC_Logo_Large.jpg" Width="197" Height="55" border="0"/>
<p></p>
<p></p>

<font face="vewrdana" size="+1">Search Results</font>

</CENTER>
<p></p>

<TABLE width="80%" BORDER="0" align="center">
<TR>
<Th>Forename</Th>
<Th>Surname</Th>
<Th>Department</Th>
<Th>Phone</Th>
<Th>Ext</Th>
<Th>Mobile</Th>
</TR>

<xsl:text>aaarameter: </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="$orderthis" />

<xsl:for-each select="search_matches/person">

<xsl:sort select="$orderthis" order="ascending"/>

<TR>
<TD class="name">
<xsl:value-of select="forename" />
</TD>
<TD class="name">
<xsl:value-of select="surname" />
</TD>
<TD class="name">
<xsl:value-of select="department" />
</TD>
<TD class="name">
<xsl:value-of select="phone" />
</TD>
<TD class="name">
<xsl:value-of select="extension" />
</TD>
<TD class="name">
<xsl:value-of select="mobile" />
</TD>
</TR>
</xsl:for-each>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

VB:
Dim mysource As New MSXML2.DOMDocument
Dim mystylesheet As New MSXML2.FreeThreadedDOMDocument

Dim myTemplate As New MSXML2.XSLTemplate
Dim myprocessor As IXSLProcessor

' Load style sheet.
mystylesheet.async = False
mystylesheet.Load "c:\vb6\controller_classes\user\web\" & myXSL

' Load data.
mysource.async = False
mysource.Load "c:\vb6\controller_classes\user\web\abc.xml"

Set myTemplate.stylesheet = mystylesheet
Set myprocessor = myTemplate.createProcessor

myprocessor.input = mysource
myprocessor.addParameter "orderthis", "forename"

myprocessor.Transform
createHTML = myprocessor.output

End Function