(1942 - 2007)
Dame Anita Roddick, DBE was a businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, the successful high street cosmetics chain known for its ethics as well as its products. The company was one of the first to prohibit the use of ingredients tested on animals and one of the first to promote fair trade with third world countries.
She was born as Anita Lucia Perilli in a bomb shelter in Littlehampton, Sussex. Her Italian family had fled Naples just before the Second World War. After training as a teacher, Anita travelled widely before meeting her husband Gordon Roddick, with whom she had two children. She then worked for the United Nations, and was introduced to people from cultures and communities all over the world.
Anita founded the first branch of The Body Shop in Brighton in 1976 with the aim of supporting herself and her two daughters while her husband was away in South America. The Body Shop was conceived to provide quality skin care products in refillable containers and sample sizes, all marketed with truth rather than hype. The first shop was basic and carried only fifteen products, but her approach proved popular and six months later, she opened her second shop. The business continued to grow, and by 2004, The Body Shop had 1980 stores, serving over 77 million customers throughout the world, and was voted the second most trusted brand in Britain.
Throughout her life, Anita was involved in activism and campaigning for environmental and social issues including involvement with Greenpeace and The Big Issue. In 1990, she founded Children On The Edge, a charitable organization which helps disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe and Asia. In 2003 her work was recognised by the Queen when she appointed Anita a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
In 2004, Anita was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C, which she had contracted after having a blood transfusion in the days before donor blood was screened. After deciding to go public with her illness in 2007, she promoted the work of the Hepatitis C Trust, and campaigned to increase awareness of the disease. She died of a brain haemorrhage in September 2007.
