Anita Roddick reveals 35 year Hepatitis C battle

Upbeat: Anita Roddick says the discovery that she has Hepatitis C 'means that I live with a sharp sense of my own mortality'
13 April 2012

Body Shop founder and millionairess Dame Anita Roddick has revealed she has been suffering from the potentially fatal liver condition hepatitis C for more than 35 years.

The 64-year-old contracted the virus following a routine blood transfusion after the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam in 1971.

Read more... • What is Hepatitis C?

• Roddick sells the body shop for £652m

• Prevalence of 'silent killer' infection on increase

• Roddick: Body Shop deal isn't a sell out

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Dame Anita was unaware she had the disease, dubbed the silent killer because of the few symptoms it causes, until a routine blood test three years ago.

Although it can be very debilitating for sufferers, the virus failed to halt Dame Anita's entrepreneurship and she went on to build her famous beauty empire, which she sold to L'Oreal in a controversial £625 million deal last year.

The animal rights campaigner has revealed that since her diagnosis doctors have discovered she is suffering cirrhosis of the liver, one of the more serious long-term effects of the disease.

Announcing she was to become a patron of the Hepatitis C Trust, a charity she turned to following her diagnosis, Dame Anita said: "I have hepatitis C. It's a bit of a bummer but you groan and move on, it's just bad luck.

"I had no idea that I had this virus. I was having routine blood tests when it showed up.

"I do have cirrhosis but I could still have a good few years - even decades - of life left, it's hard to say.

"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. It makes me even more determined to just get on with things."

Dame Anita contracted the disease from a transfusion of contaminated blood, 20 years before a national blood screening programme for the virus was introduced in 1991.

Although she insisted she was not angry about it, she criticised the Government for failing to put enough investment into treating sufferers or preventing the spread of the virus.

"I am not angry, there was no blood screening programme for hepatitis C until 1991, but what bugs me is the Government's conspicuous absence on this subject, they are not doing anything about it," Dame Anita added.

"The Government in this country doesn't seem to have had a very vigorous response to hep C.

"If you look at somewhere like France, half the people with the virus have already been diagnosed. But in this country we're way behind; only one in 10 people with hepatitis C have been diagnosed.

"Hep C must be taken seriously as a public health challenge and must get the attention and resources that it needs.

"I am astounded that the Government has spent £40 million on telling the public about the switchover to Digital TV - but only £3 million on raising awareness of hepatitis C, a serious condition which can have a massive impact on people's quality of life and which can ultimately kill them.

"I'm not sure what that says about governmental priorities, but I do know it means that people aren't getting tested, diagnosed and treated for this virus."

Recent figures estimate that around 231,000 adults in England have the hepatitis C virus, although most will not have been diagnosed.

Sufferers initially display few symptoms but the long-term consequences include liver cirrhosis and cancer.

The virus, which is twice as likely to be contracted by men as women, is transmitted by infected body fluids and drug users who share needles are particularly at risk.

The Department of Health responded to Dame Anita's comments by claiming they had a 'clear national framework for action' in place to tackle the virus.

"By the end of this year, we will have spent £4 million on raising awareness of hepatitis C," a spokesman said.

Dame Anita and her husband Gordon started the Body Shop as a single store in Brighton in 1976 to help support their two young daughters, Justine and Samantha.

They opened a second store six months later and the brand, whose success was based on their refusal to allow animal testing and staunch support of Third World suppliers, grew to 2,085 branches around the world, including 304 in the UK.

Last year the couple were accused of selling out their values when they earned £130 million from the sale of the business to controversial French beauty giants L'Oreal.

Dame Anita said she was not currently undergoing any treatment for the virus, although she said she went for check-ups every three months.

Of those affected by the virus only a fifth go on to develop liver cirrhosis like Dame Anita.

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