Anita Roddick guarded Body Shop's ethical values
Founder of ethical cosmetics firm Body Shop, Dame Anita Roddick, has died at the age of 64. Her family said in a statement she suffered "a major brain haemorrhage" at 1830 BST at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex. Her husband, Gordon, and daughters Sam and Justine were all with her.
Dame Anita set up the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976. She pioneered cruelty-free beauty products and turned them into a highly profitable business. In February she announced she had contracted Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion in 1971. The family's statement said: "Gordon, Justine and Sam Roddick are very sad to announce that, after suffering a major brain haemorrhage, Anita Roddick died at 6.30pm this evening at the age of 64. "Anita Roddick was admitted to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, close to her home, yesterday evening when she collapsed after complaining of a sudden headache. Mrs Roddick was admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit and her husband Gordon and two daughters, Sam and Justine, were with her when she died."
'Own mortality'
Dame Anita revealed she was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver after contracting Hepatitis C from blood given during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam. She said she had unknowingly lived with the virus for three decades and only found out about it two years ago after a blood test.
She was an amazing inspiration to those around her
John Sauven
Executive director of Greenpeace
"What I can say is that having Hep C means that I live with a sharp sense of my own mortality, which in many ways makes life more vivid and immediate," Dame Anita said. "It makes me even more determined to just get on with things." Dame Anita also called for Hepatitis C - sometimes called the "silent killer" - to be taken more seriously as a "public health challenge".
'Ahead of her time'
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said Dame Anita was an "incredible woman" who was passionate about environmental and human rights issues. "She was an amazing inspiration to those around her," he said. She was so ahead of her time when it came to issues of how business could be done...When you look at it today, and how every company claims to be green, she was living this decades ago."
Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of anti-death penalty organisation Reprieve, said she had just agreed to be its chairwoman. "It is a real shame," he said. "We were so happy to have her, she was so full of life, so fantastic. She was so dedicated, so energetic, she will be sorely missed."
The Body Shop became part of the French company L'Oreal Group in July 2006 but is run independently.
She was so young.
