Dr Jacqui Wood, the “beautiful, feisty” woman who spearheaded the Ninewells Cancer Campaign for 20 years, died peacefully at home in Broughty Ferry on Sunday at the age of 65, herself a victim of the disease she fought so hard to combat.
The original campaign was set up in 1991 with the aim of raising £1 million to bring Professor Roland Wolf to Dundee to research and develop new and better cancer treatments.
Professor Wolf said Dr Wood was “irreplaceable as a person but her legacy will be the continued fight against this invidious disease.”
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Dr Wood and her team, the tally raised for the Ninewells Cancer Campaign stands at £17 million, Dundee is a world-renowned centre for cancer research and, almost uniquely among charities, every penny raised goes directly to help fund its important work.
Summing up the feelings of all who worked with Dr Wood over the years, the campaign’s vice-chairman Lady Fiona Fraser expressed her sadness at the news.
“The whole community of Dundee will be saddened by the news of Jacqui’s death,” she said.
“She has been such a wonderful ambassador for further research and better treatments for cancer in Dundee. Her fund-raising efforts are legendary and her popularity immense.
“We have lost a beautiful, feisty lady, respected and loved by all who met her.
“She will be very sadly missed and our thoughts are with her family.”ImmeasurableProfessor Wolf also paid tribute to the “immeasurable contribution” Dr Wood made to cancer research work at Dundee University.
He said she had succeeded “not only in furthering our research work but in furthering the public’s understanding of the science of cancer and joining the whole community together to develop new treatments for the disease.”
Dr Wood was born in Bradford but moved with her parents, first to Somerset and then to Lincolnshire.
She married Aubrey in 1966 and they had two daughters, Sarah and Rachel, and one grandson, Matthew.
She was a member of the local Cancer Research Committee and was appointed one of the town’s youngest magistrates in 1983.
When the family moved to Dundee in 1985, she carried on where she had left off.
She was appointed a Justice of the Peace in Dundee in 1986, before moving to the Angus bench in 1996, holding the position until ill-health forced her to retire in 2009.
Dr Wood became chairman of the Ninewells Cancer Campaign when it was founded in 1991.
She formed an unlikely alliance with Dennis the Menace and charmed Taysiders into putting their hands in their pockets to Help Dennis Beat The Menace.
Since then, £17 million has been raised to fund many projects, including the Biomedical Research Centre, the Princess Alexandra Cancer Treatment Centre at Ninewells Hospital, the Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology and Photon Radio Surgery Systems.UniqueA unique feature of the charity is that no person has ever received a salary or expenses and every single penny raised goes directly to help fund the world leading research into cancer that is being undertaken at Ninewells.
Dr Wood was appointed a non-executive director of Dundee Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust from 1993 to 1999 and in 1996 she established the Keyhole Kate charity shop on the concourse of Ninewells Hospital with the aim of raising funds for patient and visitor comforts.
She was a committee member of CRC (now CRUK) Dundee and District Committee, from 1986, and served as president of the committee in 1990, 1991, 2005 and 2006.
Dr Wood was also a trustee of the Leng Charitable Trust and was on the board of Dundee College.
She was awarded the MBE in 1998 and honorary doctorates from the universities of Dundee, in 1999, Abertay, in 2005, and St Andrews, in 2009.
She was also appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the City of Dundee in 2005.
Dr Wood approached the honours heaped on her head with modesty and gratitude, always stressing the part played by others, and never lost her sense of humour.
The irony of receiving a diagnosis for ovarian cancer in 2007 was not lost on her, and she approached the future in her customary forthright spirit.
Dr Wood said then that she had every confidence in Ninewells Hospital and was certain that she would receive the very best treatment possible in Dundee.
Her confidence was borne out when her husband Aubrey praised the care she received throughout her illness.
“Unfortunately she had a very advanced stage of cancer but she managed to have three very good years before she started to get ill about a year ago,” he said.
“It was unbelievable how good the medical staff on ward 32 were and also the local nurses and doctors.
“The local district nurses, in the last few weeks in particular, have been so kind and helpful.”