Lynn Faulds Wood

Lynn Faulds Wood (25 March 1948 – 24 April 2020) was a Scottish television presenter and journalist. She was born in Glasgow and grew up on Loch Lomondside.

Faulds Wood's early career involved periods at IPC Magazines' Woman (1977–79), the Daily Mail (1979–80) then "Lynn's Action Line" at The Sun where 100,000 readers joined her campaign to close the pet market Club Row, and thousands of readers marched on Downing Street.

When Breakfast TV began in the early 1980s, Faulds Wood joined TV-am as their Consumer Champion from 1983–84 then moved to the BBC's Breakfast Time from 1984 to 1986. She is best known for turning Watchdog into a peak time BBC One series, presenting the programme from 1985 to 1993 with her husband John Stapleton.

In the 1990s, Faulds Wood moved to ITV's World In Action where she achieved their highest audience with a programme investigating GP training in cancer symptoms, "Doctor Knows Best", which had 10.2 million viewers. Her investigation into bowel cancer, "Bobby Moore & Me", had 6.5 million viewers and 28,000 letters. She also helped to create the world's first evidence-based guide to symptoms of her cancer, officially adopted by the Department of Health in 2000.

In 1990, Faulds Wood guest starred on an episode of French and Saunders as herself.

From 2003 to 2009, she was Consumer Champion on GMTV. In 2006, she teamed up with presenter Esther Rantzen and series producer Rob Unsworth to present the BBC consumer investigation series Old Dogs, New Tricks.

In 2014, Faulds Wood returned to Watchdog, with a new daytime BBC One series, Watchdog Test House, which she co-presented with Sophie Raworth.

In 2002, she co-founded the European Cancer Patient Coalition which she chaired 2003-2010. She helped to set up MEPs Against Cancer and is credited with helping to get cancer on the official European Agenda. In 2009, she was invited to present the new European cancer plan – Action Against Cancer – in Brussels.

In 2010, Faulds Wood said that she was considering entering politics by standing for the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the general election. Instead she remained as a health campaigner, still regularly appearing on television talking about cancer and consumer matters. She chaired the British Standards Institution Consumer and Public Interest Network until 2013, and served as President and Patron of many charities and health organisations, with an honorary doctorate for services to bowel cancer.

Faulds Wood married British journalist and television presenter John Stapleton in 1977; they had a son, Nick, born in 1987. The couple lived in St Margarets, London. She survived both advanced bowel and skin cancer. In late December 2016, Faulds Wood declined the offer of an MBE in the New Year Honours.

A statement released by her family on 24 April 2020, said she had died after suffering a massive stroke.