Lesley Riddoch: Evelyn Gillan, a woman who could change the world

She was one of three sisters brought up in the traditional working class mining town of Tranent, East Lothian – a charmed childhood in a strong, extended family within a tight-knit community where everyone looked out for each other. It shaped her.

An intelligent, fashion-conscious lass, she could have gone to university but trained as a hairdresser instead and worked abroad before finally studying social work (and becoming president of the Students Representative Council) at Moray House in Edinburgh. There she met many of her closest friends and Tom Proudfoot, life partner and father of her two boys.

After a brief spell working in London, Evelyn became a campaigns officer in the newly created Women’s Committee of Edinburgh Council – and a blizzard of activity followed including the Zero Tolerance Campaign, co-created with the late Franki Raffles and Susan Hart.

Massive, public 48-sheet billboards paired beautiful images with shocking statistics about physical and sexual violence against women and children across all social classes. The campaign – jaw-droppingly bold then and now – helped inspire the creation of an equally sassy feminist publication, Harpies and Quines and, according to former First Minister Jack McConnell: “Her work on domestic abuse and violence against women was to transform legislation and services in Scotland.”

Soon councils across Britain wanted to run Zero Tolerance (ZT) campaigns along with groups in New York and Australia. This runaway success led Evelyn to establish the ZT Charitable Trust with Elaine Samson, and it thrives to this day.

In 2002, after managing her youngest son’s transition to primary school and completing a PhD she became the first director of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) which combined medical knowledge with considerable advocacy skills. The result was an effective organisation that challenged the new SNP Government to tackle Scotland’s difficult and sometimes deadly relationship with booze.

Evelyn moved from SHAAP to become chief executive at Alcohol Focus Scotland, where she developed the evidence base to persuade the Scottish Government that Minimum Unit Pricing could reduce alcohol harm in Scotland.

Evelyn believed the work at SHAAP and AFS was amongst the most important undertaken in her working life. And it’s fitting that her efforts now mean this year’s Global Alcohol Policy Conference will be held in Edinburgh. After Evelyn was taken ill last year, she received a letter from David Cameron asking her to accept an MBE. She declined – but accepted an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

Evelyn’s friend Maggie Mellon recalled: “Evelyn and I both agreed on Scottish independence – mostly because having all the powers in Scotland would mean we could reach Holyrood more easily in our dotage to chain ourselves to the railings. We’ll miss that glint in her eye at every important moment of change.”

ZT board member Lesley Orr said: “Evelyn is in the great tradition of thrawn Scots who shake up complacency, disrupt the way things are, and won’t let go until they’ve been transformed. She spoke truth to power with integrity and humour. In a recent interview she was asked about the last thing that scared her. Evelyn’s response was: ‘I prefer hope over fear.’”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “For me, the single word that best describes Evelyn is ‘passion’. Her work on violence against women was outstanding [but] it was her work at Alcohol Focus Scotland that stands out. It was during these years – when I was Health Secretary – that our paths crossed most often. The road towards the Scottish Parliament eventually passing alcohol minimum pricing legislation was a long, winding and often arduous one.

"Evelyn was a source of advice and encouragement to me personally. She was a powerful advocate for the policy and, at media events, I was always struck (usually enviously) by her ability to articulate arguments more simply, powerfully and persuasively than I was able to manage.

"On more than one occasion, when I was feeling a bit downhearted, she helped to lift my spirits and remind me that nothing worth doing is ever easy. We are not yet home and dry on minimum pricing, but if we prevail, as I hope we do, it will be a fitting legacy to a great woman."

Evelyn wrote recently: “Dying has reinforced for me what I already knew deep down; that love in all its beautiful, myriad forms, is the sine qua non of life, and therefore, of death.

“The giving and receiving of love is what matters most in life. We know this, but somehow allow this deep knowledge to get lost in the cacophony of noise that accompanies our everyday lives.”

Evelyn believed aspiration means leaving the world a better place. She did.

Full tribute at www.lesleyriddoch.co.uk