Posted on 10th Mar
Hundreds of Slimming World members, consultants and colleagues will gather alongside family and friends of the organisation’s founder Margaret Miles-Bramwell OBE today (Monday 10th March, 2025) to celebrate her life.
The cortege will leave Margaret’s home in Mansfield Woodhouse for Slimming World’s offices in Somercotes, where staff and local consultants and managers will line a route through the headquarters, holding white roses and spring daffodils, which they will throw into the path of the car.
A moment’s silence will be held as the car pauses outside the reception of the main building.
From there, the cortege will continue to The Cathedral Church of All Saints, Derby, for a service led by The Very Rev Dr Peter Robinson, Dean of Derby.
Tributes will be given during the service by her son, Dominic Miles, for the family; former Slimming World chief executive Caryl Richards; and Margaret’s friend and trusted colleague Cenk Efe, on behalf of the Mallorca community.
Following the service, a private farewell will be held for family and friends.
Margaret died on Sunday, 2nd February, in Mallorca, surrounded by family, aged 76.
She is succeeded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Margaret was the owner of several successful businesses in Mallorca and the UK, including weight-management organisation Slimming World.
She started Slimming World aged 21 and her determination to help people shed the burden of excess weight without shame or guilt has seen it grow from a single group in 1969. It now employs around 500 people at its head office and 3,500 self-employed consultants run groups up and down the UK and Ireland each week. Today Slimming World supports around 700,000 members to reach the size and weight they want to be via its groups and online service.
Born in April 1948, Margaret was handed an OBE in 2009 by the then-Prince of Wales, King Charles, for services to the health of the British public and her charitable work. She set up the charitable foundation SMILES in 1997, which has since raised more than £30m. Over the years, she’s been dedicated to supporting the NSPCC (of whom she became a patron), Barnardo’s, Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Cancer Research UK and the Irish Cancer Society. In 2019, Margaret committed Slimming World to a charitable partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Having had her academic career cut short, Margaret was particularly delighted to be granted an honorary degree from the University of Derby in 2010. She was named Business Woman of the Year at the National Business Women’s Awards in 2023, and earlier this year Margaret was a Top 100 Influential People winner – established to recognise leaders in their respective fields.
Lisa Salmon, Slimming World managing director, said: “We will never forget your friendship, your wicked sense of humour, the fun we had, your kindness, your straight talking or your single-minded devotion to giving nothing but the best to Slimming World’s members, consultants, and staff.
“What you achieved in 76 years was nothing short of magnificent. At the age of just 21, you knew that there had to be a better way to help people lose weight – one based on care, compassion and empowerment, not humiliation and shame. The methods you created, based on your deep understanding of the burden of being overweight, were (and still are) revolutionary, and they changed the face of weight management.”
At Margaret’s request, donations to Blood Cancer UK can be made at margaretwhittaker.muchloved.com
