Wendy the Missionary

Wendy Alexander, MSP, has revealed in the Church of Scotland magazine Life and Work that she worked in Africa as a missionary before deciding she could achieve more by going into politics.

The former Holyrood cabinet minister spent time as a medical missionary for the Church of Scotland in Malawi but quit when she was 18, much to the disappointment of her grandmother, who had been a missionary before her.

As a missionary she spent some time in Malawi and saw the work the Church of Scotland was doing in the north of the country, eventually making the decision that some of the problems the country faced required political and economic solutions.