Body shop founder Anita Roddick dies

She collapsed close to her home near Chichester, West Sussex, on Sunday evening after complaining of a headache.

She was taken to the St Richard's Hospital in the city, where she was transferred to intensive care.

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Her condition deteriorated and she died at 6.30pm yesterday.

Her husband, Gordon, and her two daughters, Sam and Justine, were at her side.

Earlier this year Dame Anita, 64, revealed that she was suffering from Hepatitis C after a blood transfusion in 1971 following the birth of Sam.

She found out about her illness in 2004 during a routine blood test for a life insurance policy.

She also suffered cirrhosis of the liver, one of the long-term effects of the disease.

Last night her devastated family were too distraught to comment on her death.

It was not known if they were with her when she collapsed.

The multimillionaire, who was born to Italian immigrants, opened her first cosmetics store in 1976 in her home town of Littlehampton, West Sussex.

Although she qualified as a teacher in her twenties and went on to work for the United Nations, she wanted a change in career to help support herself and her daughters while her husband, who she married in 1970, trekked across America.

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The first Body Shop was basic and at first sold only 15 lines.

But the revolutionary idea of cruelty-free beauty products was ahead of its time and soon proved a roaring success.

Just six months later she opened her second shop, and on her husband's return, he joined the business.

Years later, Dame Anita described her first shop as a "series of brilliant accidents".

She said: "It had a great smell, it had a funky name.

"It was positioned between two funeral parlours - that always caused controversy. It was incredibly sensuous.

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"We recycled everything, not because we were environmentally friendly, but because we didn't have enough bottles. It was a good idea."

Dame Anita was also highly regarded for her humanitarian work to promote Aids awareness and poverty in the Third World.

Paying tribute to her last night, John Sauven, director of Green-peace, said: "Anita was an amazing ball of energy and passion.

"It was incredible being in her presence, she was very intelligent but always great fun and guaranteed to light up a room whenever she walked in.

"Young people really listened to her too.

"It did not matter whether she was with an indigenous tribe in the middle of nowhere or with a class of school kids from London - she could connect with them all.

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"She was a real pioneer, she put green and environmental issues on the business agenda, when other people laughed at her.

"Thanks to her this idea is now in the mainstream."

AIDS campaigner Emma Colyer, who worked with Dame Anita, said: "I don't think she realised quite what she had done.

"She was about living, and I think in that sense she was a role model to everyone."

When she stepped down as cochairman of The Body Shop in 2003 it had 1,980 stores worldwide, serving over 77 million customers.

Last year, The Body Shop was taken over by French cosmetics giant L'Oreal in a deal worth £652million.