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Wednesday 5th May 2010.  Six of the UK’s most deserving women were today honoured at SHE magazine’s third Inspiring Women Awards.  The annual event, held in the Ballroom at London’s Claridges hotel, paid tribute to the extraordinary achievements of six ordinary women, all nominated by SHE magazine readers for their life-changing work.

The winners were MD of Divine Chocolate, Sophi Tranchell, patient rights advisor and Charity founder Kelly Griffiths, Olympic bobsleigh athlete Nicola Minichiello, children’s charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, inventor Liz Williams and cerebral palsy charity fundraiser Jane Holmes.

SHE asked its 150,000 readers to nominate women they felt were most worthy of the magazine’s Inspiring Women Awards.  The entries were then shortlisted and winners selected by a panel of judges that included Claire Irvin, editor of SHE, Dr. Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, MOBO Awards founder Kanya King MBE, Theresa May MP, Jo Wood, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, and directors from Harrods, Wallis, HSBC, and Chanel.

SHE magazine editor Claire Irvin says: “SHE magazine readers are women who have a lot going on in their lives – be it work, children, partners, friends, they have a lot on their plate.  5For the past three years, we have proved that there is no better way to inspire women to achieve amazing things on a daily basis, despite having so much going on, than to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of ordinary women.  This year’s six winners created their own success through hard work and determination, and they should be acknowledged for the inspiration they provide to the rest of us.”

The winners’ stories:

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSWOMAN:  Sophi Tranchell, MD of Divine Chocolate.

Raised by activist parents who campaigned against apartheid and military dictatorships in South America, Sophi was introduced to social justice at an early age. “It was all I knew. I can’t imagine not being passionate about it,” she says. She immersed herself in campaigns at university and afterwards became chair of London Anti-Apartheid. It was while she was running a firm that imported Latin American films that she saw a job advert for a Fairtrade chocolate brand and applied straight away. More excited about the project than her role within it – she was hoping for a marketing job – she was astonished to be offered the position of MD.

Despite her previous lack of experience in food retail, Sophi has turned the unknown company into a household name with a turnover of £12million. Divine is the first company co-owned by those who grow the raw product – the cocoa farmers in Ghana. “Before I had even officially started I went to Ghana to meet the farmers. Ten years on, it’s amazing to see the changes in their lives – not just from their earnings but from the pride and empowerment of being involved in an international company – they love having a head office in London!”  Sophi is also the founder of Trading Visions, an education charity, and chairs the London Fairtrade Campaign.

THE SURVIVOR: Kelly Griffiths, patients rights advisor and founder of Kelly’s Heroes.

On 22 August 2006, Kelly was pulling away from traffic lights when she felt something tug at the back of her bicycle. She turned round to see a lorry bearing down on her – and before she knew it she was under its wheels. When the police arrived, Kelly was lying in the road in her own blood and intestines, the skin and muscle torn off her left foot, ankle and lower abdomen and her pelvis broken. She was 28.

Today, four years and 26 operations later – during one of which Kelly almost died – she is finally on the mend. “The temptation to spiral into negative thoughts of ‘why me?’ was overwhelming, but I had to do something positive,” she says.  So she resigned from her job as a corporate lawyer and set up Kelly’s Heroes – a charity offering support to victims of road traffic collisions and their families. It now has five staff members. Kelly is also a patient representative – championing patients’ rights in NHS trauma units – and with the government, giving presentations to doctors on how to help their patients. Kelly attributes her work to helping overcome her own trauma. “I have now embraced my scars; they’re like a badge of honour, a sign that if I can get through something like that and come out the other side, I can get through anything.”

THE CHAMPION: Nicola Minichiello, Olympic Athlete and World Champion in women’s bobsleighing.

When she crashed into a concrete wall at 70mph during the third heat of this year’s Winter Olympics, Nicola’s first thought was not whether she would survive, but of the gold medal she had lost. This commitment illustrates the resolve that got her to the Olympics.  Brought up by her single mother on benefits and the victim of racist bullying at school, Nicola’s passion for athletics got her into teacher training. “Sport saved me. It was an opportunity to get away from my environment,” she says. She soon became a dedicated heptathlete. Her speed and agility didn’t go unnoticed and two weeks after her brother’s death from a heroin overdose, when she was 24, she was asked to audition for the British bobsleigh team. “I thought, ‘What the heck, life is too short’.”

Last year she won the world championship with brake-woman Gill Cooke. In the summer she teaches to fund the team – she bought her £8,500 bobsleigh on her credit card, which she is still paying off. Before this year’s Winter Olympics Nicola faced yet

 another hurdle when she lost the sight in one eye – due to inflammation of the retina – and was operated on just 16 days before the games. Then came the crash. “It’s just one of those things I’m putting down to experience. Crashes happen.”

Next on her agenda is defending her world title and continuing her work with the Youth Sport Trust. “If there’s one person who I can influence, then that for me is fantastic, especially if it’s a young person. It’s an honour to be in that position.”

THE HUMANITARIAN: Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company.

Iranian-born Camila has risked her own home three times for her charity – twice remortgaging her house to plug a funds shortage and once when she directed money to her charity instead of her monthly repayments. “When it came to court, the judge refused to take my flat away when he discovered what I’d done with the money,” she says. But her commitment has more than paid off, as Kids Company now helps 14,000 children each year – providing a home from home for children; cooking hot meals, helping with homework, finding them doctors, enabling them to get back into education, finding specialist support and even giving them a mobile phone so they can call their mentors at any time.

After training and working as a child psychotherapist for social services, Camila established Kids Company in 1996. She was frustrated by a system that wasn’t working and which relied on neglectful parents – themselves the problem – to bring their children to sessions. The results are nothing short of amazing – 96 per cent return to education or employment and this year alone 90 took up university places. “It’s a privilege for me to work with these children. They are incredibly courageous, dignified and forgiving. To me life is about that moment you lie on your death bed and think was it worth it, and the answer is ‘Blooming yes’.”

THE INNOVATOR: Liz Williams, Inventor

Like all parents watching the news coverage of the 2002 Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, Liz put herself in the mothers’ shoes. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. I was desperate to do something,” she says. The case inspired Liz – an artist – to develop the world’s first forensic trace alarm. But science was a new and expensive business – just to launch the product cost £200,000 and she had to remortgage her home to fund it. Using biosynthetic DNA registered to the business or person owning the alarm, it works by marking the criminals’ skin and clothing – providing forensic proof of their presence at the crime scene.  “When I first told my family, there were a few raised eyebrows. I think they thought I was slightly mad experimenting in the garden with powders and dyes.”

In 2006, four years later, Liz finally secured a patent on her product, which is sold by Redweb security. Liz’s premises alarm, Sentry 500, costs around £200 and is installed mainly on business premises. “A corner shop in Manchester had seven attacks in five months – with machetes, baseball bats, the works. Since the owner installed my device, he hasn’t had a problem. Stories like that make all the hard work worth it.” Liz now works as a coach for other inventors and is planning to extend the DNA range to include the personal alarms inspired by the Soham murders.

THE JUGGLER: Jane Holmes, founder of Peapods and Building For The Future

When Jane’s daughter Kitty was born pale, limp and not breathing, Jane’s world collapsed. It transpired that Kitty had severe cerebral palsy. “For the first 10 days after her birth I thought she was going to die. That was the only thing I focused on, willing her to live,” she says. Kitty, now eight, can’t talk or eat (she is fed via a tube into her stomach), process vision properly or control her body and suffers seizures, which means she can’t be left alone at night. What’s more, Kitty’s special school is a two-hour drive away.

Frustrated by the lack of local facilities and support available, Jane set up Peapods, a charity to support families with disabled children. “If anything, it was a help for me. It was a relief to talk to other parents going through the same thing.” Peapods now helps more than 40 families in Wokingham, Berks. But Jane didn’t stop there; two years ago she started up the charity Building for the Future to raise money for a purpose-built community centre. “It will be somewhere families can come and be completely accepted, have a break, a coffee, get information, make friends... have a lie down if they need to – because we’re all knackered!”

The charity needs £100,000 to reach its target. “When I think about how I balance it all, I honestly don’t know – the housework definitely suffers! Obviously I have down days, but the children are such an inspiration. They smile and laugh and you realise

you haven’t got much to be down about. I feel like I want to match their efforts, to make it better for them. It’s my life’s work now.

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For interviews with any of the SHE Inspiring Women 2010 winners, or for further information or images, please contact:

Natalie Earl

PR Manager

The National Magazine Company Ltd.

72 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9EP

Tel: 020 7439 5218

Mob: 07809 658146

natalie.earl@natmags.co.uk