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When people are told a Scottish priest is coming, they don't generally expect a short black woman with a thick Glasgow accent. Sandra MacDougall was born in Renfrew in 1975, to a Ghanaian mother and a Scottish/Jamaican father; after receiving her first degree in History from Aberdeen, she went on to ordination as a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church. She's spent almost her entire career as a prison chaplain, first at HMP Cornton Vale in Scotland, and subsequently at HMP Low Newton, in England's County Durham. This is a high security women's prison, and is the UK's only centre for the treatment of women with dangerous and severe personality disorders. While working there, Sandra became deeply involved in the Scottish independence movement. She gave media interviews and was photographed for an advertising campaign. This has landed her in trouble with her employers, who are an arm of the UK government.
Sandra is well-read and even-tempered. She works out a fair bit, but is naturally plump and unimposing. Her preferred choice of car - a beaten-up second-hand Land Rover she bought for a song at university - might be seen as compensating, but given her relatively remote workplace, it's mostly pragmatic. She doesn't proselytise unless asked to, except on the subject of green tea.
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