Thanksgiving service to be held for late former health secretary Jeane Freeman

A thanksgiving service is to take place in memory of former Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman.

Freeman died on February 7 aged 72 after being diagnosed with cancer in January.

A former nurse, she was MSP for the Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency from 2016 to 2021 and served as health secretary from 2018 to 2021.

A thanksgiving service will take place at the University of Glasgow on Saturday afternoon following a private cremation.

The service will be held in the university’s Bute Hall and will be livestreamed online.

Tributes were paid to Freeman during a motion of condolence at the Scottish Parliament earlier this week.

Freeman was appointed as a senior civil servant with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive in 1999, before taking on a special adviser role to then Labour first minister Jack McConnell.

After taking a leading role in the campaign group Women for Independence during the 2014 referendum, she joined the SNP and was elected as an MSP at the 2016 election.

Freeman then joined the government as minister for social security, during which time she established the creation of a social security service for Scotland.

During her time as health secretary, she led on Scotland’s response to the Covid pandemic until her retirement in 2021.