Dr Jacqui Wood, MBE DLBack to Dundee Ambassadors

Jacqui is the Chairwoman of the Ninewells Cancer Campaign. Since moving to the city in the 80s, Jacqui has been a driving force in raising millions of pounds for cancer research.

I work in Dundee as a volunteer for The Ninewells Cancer Campaign. It‘s quite unique as a charity as nobody gets paid and nobody gets a penny in expenses. Absolutely all the money we raise goes straight into the campaign which is run from the University of Dundee and helps fund world-leading research into cancer treatments. 

DC Thomson very kindly allowed us to use Dennis the Menace as our logo to ‘Help Dennis Beat The Menace'. The people in Dundee are wonderfully generous. The campaign started back in 1991 and it was initially meant to be an appeal to raise £1m to bring Professor Roland Wolf, a leading scientist in the field, to Dundee to research and develop new and better cancer treatments. The campaign has grown hugely since and the people of Tayside have helped us to raise a fantastic £17 million over the years.

I think Dundee is a well-kept secret. It's a wonderful place to live and I feel very privileged to be here. We've got lovely countryside all around us and it's just a short distance to get out into it. Dundee's central location also means that it's really easy to travel to other places in Scotland - Edinburgh or Glasgow for example. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

I think Dundonians should stand at the top of The Law and shout about how great the city is. If there is one thing we could do better it would definitely be self-promotion. Especially now when we have such exciting plans for the future. I think  we're very fortunate to have a beautiful waterfront which, when fully developed, will attract far more businesses and tourists to Dundee.

The knowledge in Dundee is attracting world-class talent here. For example, more and more people who work in the life sciences are moving to the city. I see this being a big part of Dundee's future.