Slimming World founder and Chairman, Margaret Miles-Bramwell, has been honoured with an OBE in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the community in Derbyshire and to the field of weight management.
Margaret started Slimming World from her home in Derbyshire 40 years ago because, after struggling with her own weight for years, she was disillusioned by the low standards of support available for slimmers at that time. Her vision was to create a radically different approach to weight loss, centred on the twin pillars of a healthy, satisfying eating plan - based on satisfying hunger with healthy, low calorie foods rather than on deprivation - and a group environment where slimmers are treated with warmth, dignity and respect. By banishing hunger and guilt, and by helping raise people’s self esteem, her approach at one stroke removed the major obstacles faced by people with weight problems. And so Slimming World was born.
A successful entrepreneur, Margaret has built the business into a national organisation that covers the whole of Britain. Slimming World’s head office remains in Derbyshire and employs around 250 staff.
There are now more than 6,000 Slimming World groups held in the UK every week, with an average of 300,000 members attending every week.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed to receive this honour,” says Margaret. “I regard it as an extraordinary accolade for the marvellous people with whom I’ve worked over the years to build Slimming World into the amazing business that it is today.”
Over the years Margaret has put a great deal back into her local community, such as donating the former Slimming World office to South Normanton Parish Council for use as a cyber café for local young people, and supporting the Redhouse Family Support Centre which supports children at risk and their families. She has also set up a charitable foundation via Slimming World which has raised £1.75 million for charities including Marie Curie Cancer Care and the NSPCC. She became a patron of the NSPCC in 2002 in recognition of her fundraising.
Slimming World has also invested significant amounts into funding research into weight loss and appetite, for example through its involvement in the DIOGENES European Research Study, and now works with the NHS across the UK to offer subsidised ‘slimming on referral’ courses to overweight patients.
Margaret says: “It’s our Ruby anniversary this year and a question I’ve been asked is how has the business changed in 40 years. My answer is that everything has changed and nothing has changed. When I look back to those early days, I was literally a one-man band. I was doing everything, and the company itself has blossomed beyond my wildest dreams. Yet the problems faced by individual slimmers, their fears and dreams, are the same today as they were then. And the best solutions are the same – a generous, healthy eating plan and the support of a warm and powerfully motivating group of people. ’
Caryl Richards, Slimming World’s Managing Director says: “We’re so proud that Margaret has received this honour. The principles on which she founded Slimming World 40 years ago, that slimmers deserve to be free from hunger and from humiliation, have now become widely accepted. Margaret’s vision and passion have truly changed the face of slimming in Britain.” – Ends –
Pic caption 1: Slimming World founder and chairman, Margaret Miles-Bramwell has been awarded an OBE for services to the community in Derbyshire and to the field of weight management in Slimming World’s 40th Anniversary year.
Pic caption 2: Slimming World founder and chairman, Margaret Miles-Bramwell at home with her husband Tony Whittaker.
For further information please contact the Slimming World press office on 01773 546037, or 07795 445004 or email: jenny.caven@slimming-world.com or public.relations@slimming-world.com
Notes to Editors
· Slimming World is the largest and most advanced slimming organisation in the UK. Margaret Miles-Bramwell founded the company in 1969 and there are now 6,000 groups held weekly nationwide via a network of 2,500 Slimming World trained Consultants.
· In 2009 Slimming World celebrates its 40th Anniversary and four decades of helping people to lose weight without deprivation, guilt or hunger.
· 300,000 members attend Slimming World every week and achieve outstanding success.
· Members lose 17,857 stones every week: 2,551 stones every day, over 106 stones every hour, that’s 1 stone 10 lbs lost every minute of every day with Slimming World.
· Slimming World pioneered Slimming World on Referral in the UK and actively supports the building of partnerships with the NHS and local authorities to develop effective strategies to manage overweight and obesity in the community. Slimming World works with university researchers and specialists in an active research programme to further knowledge of the causes and treatment of obesity.
· Slimming World’s healthy eating plan, Food Optimising, and the principles behind Slimming World’s philosophy are based on a deep understanding of the challenges faced by overweight people. Slimming World integrates practical, up-to-date dietary advice with a highly developed support system.
· Slimming World Consultants receive specific training in dietary aspects and the role of physical activity in weight control. The highly developed training focuses on facilitating behaviour change in a group environment, acknowledged by experts as being the most effective way to support long-term weight management.
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