BRITIAN:The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick is suffering from liver damage after contracting the hepatitis C virus more than 35 years ago, she said on her website on yesterday.
Ms Roddick (64), one of Britain's best-known businesswomen, developed the potentially deadly disease from infected blood given to her during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971.
"I have hepatitis C - it's a bit of a bummer but you groan and move on," she said. "I had no idea that I had this virus. I was having routine blood tests when it showed up."
Ms Roddick, who agreed to sell her stake in the beauty retailer to France's L'Oreal last year, said she faced an increased risk of liver cancer.
"I do have cirrhosis. I could still have a good few years - even decades - of life left, but it's hard to say," her statement said. "Having hep C means that I live with a sharp sense of my own mortality."
Hepatitis C is a virus that attacks the liver and can be carried in the blood for decades. It can cause liver failure or cancer. There are an estimated 200 million people worldwide infected with the disease, according to the British charity, the Hepatitis C Trust.
There is no vaccine, but drug treatments can help between 50 per cent and 80 per cent of sufferers, the charity said.
Ms Roddick has become a patron of the Hepatitis C Trust.
"I want to blow the whistle on the fact that hep C must be taken seriously as a public health challenge and must get the attention and resources that it needs," she said.
Ms Roddick founded The Body Shop in Brighton in 1976, selling toiletries made from natural ingredients, preferably sourced from developing countries. It grew into an empire of more than 2,000 stores, selling everything from seaweed moisturiser to ylang-ylang massage oil.