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Tribute to Anita's Body and soul
Mark Blunden, Evening Standard24.10.07
A giant image of Dame Anita Roddick was beamed onto the side of the National Theatre in honour of the Body Shop founder.
It marked the finale to a memorial evening for Dame Anita, who died last month at the age of 64 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
On what would have been her 65th birthday more than 1,500 family and friends, including Alan Rickman, Trevor Eve, Sharon Maughan and Bianca Jagger, paid tribute to the eco-cosmetics pioneer. The memorial service at Central Hall, Westminster, also launched what is hoped will become an annual day of activism.
I Am An Activist is aimed at inspiring and encouraging people who are passionate about the same issues on which Dame Anita tried to make a difference - human rights, trade justice, peace, women's rights, homelessness and climate change. Her husband, Gordon, said his wife, who lived with hepatitis C for 30 years after a blood transfusion, "never lost hope or stamina".
Rickman said: "Anita was uncompromising, inspiring and visionary, an active world citizen, but still funny, sexy and overflowing."
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "Anita had a finely tuned sense of outrage and she, like so many Amnesty members, felt compelled to do something and to defend the rights of others. She was a role model for us."After the service, guests walked to the Southbank where Dame Anita's image was projected with the I Am An Activist logo.
Her daughter, Sam, made a speech and 5,000 bio-degradable balloons were released to the sound of gospel singers.
More than 40 organisations were represented, including the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, said he hoped Dame Anita would have appreciated the day of activism launched in her honour. He said: "It was difficult to pigeonhole Anita - she was a successful businesswoman, a human rights campaigner, an activist."
Clive Stafford-Smith, founder of anti-death penalty organisation Reprieve, said: "Where society hated someone enough to inflict an injustice, Anita's own decision was relatively simple: it was crystal clear that this was wrong."
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What an amazing person she was. I had never used Body Shop products until I read her first book. Upon reading it I was hooked because of her and her ideas. If only some of the big businesses in this country would learn from her attitude to business and to life. She was so outspoken but also spoke plain English. No gobbly gook that left one wondering what on earth is meant, like so many other people in the public domain.
She will be sorely missed and cannot be replaced.
- Carolyn Martin, Winchester UK
She was amazing, a real woman and a role model. She lives on.
- Jean Matthews, London England
