About Us
Angie Davidson Interviews Lynn Faulds Wood
Lynn Faulds Wood and her husband John Stapleton are patrons of the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust.Lynn grew up on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland, one of four children, her mother developed Lupus when Lynn was about 12. I asked Lynn about her career and how she got started as an investigative journalist. "I actually started my career as a French teacher at Holland Park Comprehensive in London then switched to journalism after I met my husband-to-be in a pub. My first experience of consumer investigative
journalism was after John gave me a Christmas present which was too big - the shop refused to change it, I got a tear in my eye - and low and behold - they changed it. I looked up my consumer rights afterwards - they were right and I wasn't!"
Lynn has had a very varied career both in television and magazine/newspaper journalism. She says, "I wrote for magazines -'Action woman' in Woman magazine and newspapers like the Daily Mail and 'Lynn's Action Line' in the Sun I kept being invited onto television to discuss my investigations and eventually stayed there. I had a number of consumer slots on TV-am, BBC Breakfast Time and then started Watchdog as a separate programme. John and I were the first married couple presenters on Watchdog which we presented for eight years.
During this time I received a number of awards - Consumer Journalist of the Decade 1980s, Motoring Writer of the Year, Medical Broadcaster of the Year (1996-7) etc".
In 1991 Lynn was at the peak of her career presenting Watchdog on BBC when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. "Life couldn't have been better, she recalls; I had a happy marriage, a lovely son, Nick, and a successful television career. Then, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with cancer. If I had not been assertive, I would have died - it's as simple as that.
Under the circumstances I was very lucky to survive. After this I switched to making medical programmes and in 1994 made a programme on Lupus for the 'Lady Killers'
series on women's health problems". It was during the making of the 'Lady Killers' that Lynn learnt about Dr Hughes' charity.
"I became involved with St Thomas' Lupus Trust when I was looking for the best experts while making the programme on lupus and met Dr Graham Hughes who is highly regarded all around the world. I interviewed him for the programme and featured the baby clinic. I was also involved with the Daily Mail 'Unsung Heroes of the NHS' award scheme which picked Dr. Khamashta as winner for his baby work".
Lynn is famous for her work with bowel cancer and says "I am the Chairman of the European Cancer Patients Coalition (www.ecpc-online.org) and run my own charity 'Lynn's Bowel Cancer Campaign' www.bowelcancer.tv. I've met the Pope to launch a Global Bowel Cancer Awareness Campaign - he'd had it nine years before and Prince Charles to launch a British campaign and got him to mention 'bottoms and
bowels' on every national news broadcast. Now I just have to help you do the same for lupus!"
Lynn also sits on scientific, medical and advisory committees across Europe.
"I'm still involved in TV work and am now presenting 'Lynn'll Fix It' for GMTV, a weekly mini Watchdog. we tackle rogue traders, dodgy deeds and crooked companies. There are con men out there that deserve to be exposed and the camera is a very powerful tool. We received over 9,000 e-mails in just 7 weeks!!"
I asked Lynn if she and John ever got to see each other with such demanding schedules. "Yes, because I work a lot from home but we have desks two floors apart. I also see him on the sofa at GMTV sometimes!!"
We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have Lynn and John, 2 of the most respected (and busiest!!) journalists, as Patrons, this helps raise our profile tremendously.
