Gifted communicator who led influential campaigns for minimum alcohol pricing and women’s rights in Scotland
Evelyn Gillan, who has died of gastric cancer aged 55, was an oustanding champion of women’s rights and improvements in public health policy, instrumental in bringing about minimum alcohol pricing in Scotland.
As the first director of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (Shaap), set up in 2006 by the Scottish medical royal colleges, Gillan translated the evidence on alcohol pricing into a few challenging phrases that resonated in the media and with politicians, helping to convince the new SNP government to take on the country’s destructive relationship with alcohol. The 2007 Shaap report, Alcohol: Price, Policy and Public Health, has since been cited by international scientists and played a critical role in advancing the public health case for policy action on price in Scotland.
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