Dancing On Ice
Watch Heather's Dancing on Ice Videos

Viva!

Viva Heather!

By Juliet Gellatley, founder & director, Viva! and the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation

I first met Heather Mills at the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards (where I was being given their Award for Animal Welfare) in 1999. I then read her autobiography, A Single Step, and felt huge empathy with this determined woman – Heather is a born campaigner!

Heather started working actively with Viva! in 2005. She called me for info on hunting prior to an appearance on Question Time, and joked about putting her artificial leg up the backside of one of the pro-hunter’s on the panel. At that point, I knew we’d get on!

Talking to Heather, she immediately puts you at ease. There’s no sniff of arrogance – instead she’s down to earth and has a wicked sense of fun. She is passionate about animal welfare, a committed vegan and unusually and refreshingly – turns words into action. I’ve met and worked on campaigns with her many times and are now firm friends. I’m honoured that she became a Patron of both the organisations I founded – Viva! and the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation (VVF).

The first major campaign Heather poured herself into for the VVF is called White Lies. I thought of Heather because she is one of the few well known personalities who does not shy away from controversy, who is prepared to research the facts behind a campaign and is eloquent. White Lies breaks new ground - and includes the first scientific review on the health impact of consuming dairy products. The evidence is overwhelming – cow’s milk and dairy products are neither natural nor healthy, in fact they are harmful to health and have been linked to a wide range of illnesses and diseases. Heather wrote several articles on the subject, ensuring widespread publicity.
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/campaigns/whitelies/index.html

Sadly, at one point the media’s attack on Heather directly prevented her from being able to continue with this charity work but she worked with us behind the scenes to ensure the success of the campaign and made a donation to pay for the main booklet, It’s easy to be Dairy Free distributed throughout the UK in health shops.
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/guides/guides.htm

In March 2007 Heather agreed to do a photocall for Viva!’s campaign to end the use of a cruel system – where most of the UKs mother pigs are incarcerated in cages called the farrowing crate. Heather did what no other celebrity ever has – and came to film the state of pigs in a typical factory farm , not because she wanted to as she knew she’d find it very upsetting – but because we told her it would guarantee the footage being shown worldwide. And it was: the plight of these poor animals was shown twice on GMTV, on many UK channels and went worldwide and the target – M&S – promised to stop using the farrowing crate.
http://www.viva.org.uk/heathervideo/index.html

Heather agreed earlier in 2007 to be our figurehead for Viva!’s national Incredible Veggie Show which attracted 5,000 visitors. I worked in a photo studio with her from 9am to 6pm, directing the shoot. She is always a pleasure to work with – uncomplaining, funny and easy going. Again she worked behind the scenes to help us and gave a packed cookery demo at our event.

Heather is quite incredible in the challenges she is prepared to take on – never afraid of failing and seeing only the positives. In 2007 she participated in a national USA TV show, Dancing with the Stars, surely this was a challenge to beat them all! Heather wanted to show it’s possible to overcome a disability and to raise funds for Viva!. The fact that each week’s survival meant more money for Viva! became almost incidental as I willed her on simply to see her succeed. She deserved success, she deserved to be cheered and she deserved the warmth she has been shown in the US. The donation from the show helped to fund the setting up of investigations into animal cruelty for Viva! – exposing the horrors of factory farming and slaughter. She also helped set up a youth wing for Viva!.

Also in 2007, Heather launched another groundbreaking campaign for Viva! – showing how eating animals is destroying the planet. She featured on billboards, leaflets and posters which show how the global consumption of 55 billion land animals a year are the major cause of loss of wildlife species, global warming, desertification, loss of rainforests and antibiotic pollution.
http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/hot/index.php

Heather has worked tirelessly to ban landmines, help amputees and their families and to promote veganism and protect animals. Obviously not everyone agrees with her standpoint but her passion and fight for her causes is beyond doubt.

The work Heather has done to actively help our campaigns against factory farming and promote vegetarianism and veganism has been an enormous boost to Viva! and VVF. The fact that she has volunteered her time to us over and over again - particularly as it has often been during a difficult period in her life, is very much appreciated. Her contribution towards our campaigns has been invaluable.

Juliet Gellatley
Founder & Director, Viva! and VVF
www.viva.org.uk
www.vegetarian.org.uk
About Juliet Gellatley http://www.viva.org.uk/aboutus/juliet.html