FOR 45 years, the Evening Times has honoured Scotland's most remarkable women. As we start the search for Scotswoman of the Year 2007, in association with the St Enoch Centre, SHEILA HAMILTON catches up with last year's winner.

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THE HANDSOME bronze trophy has pride of place on the window sill of her office at the £15million British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow.

It's a constant reminder to the glamorous head of the centre, Polish-born Professor Anna Dominiczak, of one of the proudest moments of her life the night she was crowned Scotswoman of the Year 2006.

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As a world leader in research and the doctor leading the fight to rid Glasgow of its label of heart disease capital of Europe, hers is a life which has witnessed many triumphs.

But for Prof Dominiczak, who was awarded an OBE in 2005, the Evening Times award is right up there with the most prestigious.

It is hard to credit that a woman of her awesome achievements can ever lack self-confidence, but she reveals a vulnerable side.

"I think we all have bad moments. Any time things aren't working out for me - if the research isn't going well, if the grants aren't coming in, if a student doesn't perform well - I look over at the trophy," she says, a smile spreading across her features as she describes how much it has meant to her.

"I remember the wonderful evening when completely unexpectedly and undeservedly I became Scotswoman of the Year.

"It has been a fantastic honour and a tremendous boost to everything I do. I can now feel officially Scottish, despite my accent," she laughed.

In spring, there was another honour when Prof Dominiczak received the Lord Provost's Special Award for her contribution and commitment to the health of Glasgow.

"It was fantastic to get another prize," she smiled. "I'm not sure how I deserved this."

The professor is tiny but fizzes with energy and enthusiasm.

It has been another frantically busy year for her with trips to China, Japan, Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and the US.

Oh, and she fitted in a holiday in Provence.

"I've really been doing the same as before, just more of it," she said ruefully. "There are not enough hours in the day."

One of the highlights of her year was the China trip.

As a member of the Scientific Council of the European Society for Hypertension, she was asked to present new guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease to 5000 doctors.

Her lecture was beamed to 50 cities and she broke new ground.

"There is a huge percentage of women doctors in China and they were all pleased to see a woman speaker for the first time."

It is an exciting time to be a research scientist in Glasgow.

While she acknowledges drug development is vital, the professor is convinced preventive medicine is the way forward.

She leads the Generation Scotland study at Glasgow University which aims to pinpoint the genetic heritage that may lie behind much of Scotland's disastrous health record.

It could spark a new era where doctors could predict far more accurately a person's risk of developing a particular illness and come up with better advice and treatment to reduce the risk.

She reveals: "We've also been very successful in putting together a novel collaborative project of all our medical schools in Scotland to come up with easy to measure biological disease markers, for early detection of heart disease."

She hopes they could lead to an early diagnostic test for cardiovascular problems, possibly within a decade.

Prof Dominiczak was born in Gdansk, trained there and came to Scotland in 1982 with her husband, Marek (consultant in clinical biochemistry at Gartnavel).

The couple live in Bearsden and their son, Peter 21, who has a first in engineering from Imperial College in London, is training as a journalist.

Anna is committed to her adopted country and has turned down many exciting offers to work abroad over the years. She is a firm believer in the NHS.

She campaigned relentlessly to bring the state of the art BHFcentre to Glasgow, sometimes against strong local opposition.

Previous winners are all heroines THE EVENING Times Scotswomen of the Year are an inspirational group of women. In the past few years, they have included:
SANDRA BROWN, 2005 Sandra believes her own father was responsible for the death of Coatbridge girl, Moira Anderson, who disappeared in 1957. She has worked tirelessly to find the truth and set up the Moira Anderson Foundation to help sexually abused children and their families.	OLIVIA GILES, 2004 Olivia was a successful lawyer when she fell ill with meningococcal meningitis and had to have her hands and feet amputated. She is now a charity campaigner.	TRACY COSGROVE. 2003 Tracy set up a foundation to help Thai orphans and has rescued innumerable children from life on the streets.	EILEEN McKIERNAN 2002 Eileen, whose only son died of meningitis at 17, has devoted her life to fundraising for research to prevent other families suffering the same pain.	MAUREEN McKENNA 2001 The late Maureen was a former alcoholic who establish the Open Door Trust to support Glasgow's homeless people, drug addicts and recovering alcoholics.

The centre has been short-listed for the British Heart Foundation's new Research Excellence Awards.

She said: "It's a six year multi-disciplinary research funding programme to train researchers to produce new ideas how to fight heart disease.

"It's an award of up to £9m. If we're successful, it will set us up."

One of the highlights of the year for her has been the number of new young people who have come to work at the centre.

"They have come from Italy, from Spain, from Germany, Switzerland and Australia and they all have very exciting projects.

"I can see the next generation of cardiovascular researchers growing here."

Her aim is to make the centre the world's best at fighting disease. She said: "We're taking great strides towards that goal."

But we cannot be complacent. The British Heart Foundation statistics for 2005 show that although coronary heart disease has reduced since 2003, it still reigns supreme as the major killer in Scotland.

"There is sometimes this false impression we have dealt with cardiovascular disease. Well, we haven't.

"Yes, we are a little better, but it is still huge, twice as big as the south-east of England, and still more than the UK average.

"The Western world has been very good at treating people after they have had heart attacks, but the trick in the future is to prevent it happening.

"When a 43-year-old male in the middle of his career succumbs to a heart attack, we can now lower his cholesterol, but the damage has already been done."

More focus needs to be put on preventing obesity, high blood pressure and type two diabetes, she warns, pointing to a report showing Scotland second only to the US as the most overweight country in the developed world.

All her focus is on her ultimate goal - making heart disease history.

And that's something that will affect every single family in Scotland.