Linda's mission to help mums in poor Malawi

Mrs McDonald was recognised for her charity work in a ceremony at Strathclyde University on Friday, and admitted it was "a great honour".

Born in 1960, she attended Charing Cross secondary school in Glasgow, before going on to start her midwifery training in 1978.

Now a senior midwife at Edinburgh's Simpson maternity centre, she devotes her spare time to running her charity, Malawi Underprivileged Mothers (MUMS), with which she has raised millions of pounds in funding and managed to have a maternity hospital wing built in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe.

Dr Peter West, chairman of the Scotland-Malawi Partnership, gave her oration at the graduation ceremony, and said: "Linda McDonald has shown all of us that, with sufficient determination and inspiration, we can achieve more than we ever thought ourselves capable of.

"She has changed the lives of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on earth and has brought credit and honour to our land.

"With her work and as the mother of two daughters, Katie and Sally, whom we are glad to welcome today together with her husband Iain, she had a life which was both busy and fulfilling."

Mrs McDonald began her work in Malawi after a colleague had visited the country and spoke of the awful conditions endured by mothers, some giving birth on black plastic bags surrounded by cockroaches. The hospital had two doctors and four midwives and delivered 12,000 babies a year. At least one mother died in childbirth every week and four or five newborn babies were dying every day.

She saw the photos and that night she said to her husband that they were going to have to go there.

In 2005, she embarked on a journey to Malawi to see for herself. The next five years would see fundraising efforts go from recipe books and concerts to having Sarah Brown write a foreword in a new recipe book.

The book has already sold more than 35,000 copies, raising tens of thousands of pounds.

Talking about her greatest achievement, Mrs McDonald said: "Apart from bringing up my lovely children and finding true love, it has to be setting up MUMs and producing a charity concert at the Usher Hall.

"Seeing people like Tom Farmer turn up and knowing they're all there because of me was a wonderful thrill."