It’s Never Felt Like Hard Work
Real Life: the story of Champneys
She’s the owner of the UK’s original health spa, Champneys – and despite turning 87 this year, Dorothy Purdew OBE is still running it with her son, Stephen (60).
“When I was growing up I never imagined I would be running a spa company, and now when I look back, I just feel so lucky.
“My parents came from a generation who didn’t see the value of educating girls and even though I loved school, I left at 14 to take up a job in a factory and then as a punch card operator and secretary.
“At 24, I got married to Bob and we had two boys, Stephen and George. I stayed at home once I had them, as that was what was expected.
“But my husband loved working as an architect and he was often away. When I started to ask him to come home earlier, he told me to ‘find something to do’. So I decided to set up and run a playgroup.
“Around then, I got quite fat and I joined Weight Watchers. I lost five stone in six months. I was so inspired by it, I wanted to be a lecturer for them but they didn’t want me!
“My doctor, who was also a friend, and my husband both told me, ‘Go and run your own club’. Together, we devised a diet based on a carb points system.
“I will always remember the first meeting – only four people and my mum came to the class! But after six months or so, I had 150 people there. It was lively and we even started all going away at weekends together.
“The number of slimming clubs I ran eventually rose to 70 and I loved it.
“I also used to invite some of the overweight women into my home to prove you didn’t have to eat cake every five minutes. I can remember Bob coming home one day and asking if the women paid. They didn’t – and it was at this point, he said, ‘If you
I felt I had ruined everything. But Bob pointed out, “We are not dead”
want to run a health farm, then find one as I am fed up of having them in my house.’ I thought it was a great idea!
“By now I was in my late 30s and you weren’t allowed to run a business from your home, so I started to look around.
“Out of the blue, I had a call inviting me to look at Thornby Hall in Northamptonshire. I was told it was ‘sort of free’! A recluse had left it to a 15-year-old boy and they were looking for someone to take care of it.
“But it turned out to be the most expensive free gift ever.
“We had to wash, clean and paint it and while I loved it all, I made so many mistakes. The costs were so high and we ended up going into voluntary liquidation.
“We had to sell our family home in Sussex and I felt I had ruined everything. Bob told me to ‘get on with things’ and quite rightly pointed out, ‘We are not dead’.
“And it was when I was going broke that Henlow
came up. The owner wanted to see if I was still interested as I had visited it a couple of years earlier to see how things were run.
“I didn’t have enough gumption to say I hadn’t got the money to buy it, so I went even though my husband thought it was ridiculous. I loved it. Now bearing in mind the owner was originally asking £2 million, I couldn’t believe it when she agreed to my offer of £350,000.
“The trouble was, I didn’t have the money to buy it! But after going back to my old bank manager, I somehow walked away with an agreement to buy it. That would not happen now!
“When we first arrived at Henlow in 1981, it was so dirty. I hired ten women to work in pairs and, room by room, we cleaned the entire house. It took ten weeks.
“I didn’t know much about beauty therapy as I was more into fitness and dieting but in a short time, I realised how important it was. People feel better about themselves when they have a massage or facial, which were quite basic back in those early days!
“There would be five couches in one massage/ facial room and the guests used to smoke all the way through the treatments. Chances are the therapists would stop to have a smoke too. I put a stop to that right away!
“I also overhauled the diet that had consisted partly of them giving out vitamins from m a bucket each morning. It was horrible. We started giving them three healthy meals a day and we also changed the way the breaks ran.
“Since those early days, we have gone on to open three more spa residential resorts and branch out into other beauty areas.
“I haven’t stopped because I love helping educating people about dieting and how exercise can be fun. It’s never felt like hard work.
“I couldn’t have done anything of this without my family. Stephen has been with me since he was 17 and he hopes it will stay a family business. And my husband (who died in 1990) was so supportive. After all, it was his advice to ‘find something to do’ that inspired me all those years ago.”
For more information or to book a treatment or break, go to WWW.CHAMPNEYS.COM