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In that book I invented 46 recipes, all free of added sugar (the reason I became overweight in the first place). One of them was for a chocolate orange date ball. My friends told me it was so delicious I needed to sell it commercially. Not long after I was standing in my Virgin Active gym cafe and looked at the sweet snack offering – mainly ultra processed bars. I started to message Richard Branson on social media because the answer was obvious – sell my date balls in Virgin Active. No response. Then my son texted me one day out of the blue and said ‘Mum, I’m in Virgin Active and Richard Branson is here filming’. I put my running shoes on, shot over there and stood in the shadows watching. There was a split second when everyone turned their backs to check his video, and I went for it. ‘Sir Richard, I need to pitch you, its very important!’. Without even blinking he said ‘go on then, pitch me’… So I did. He loved the concept of a sweet snack with no added sugar. He introduced me to his team. I pitched them in the boardroom two weeks later and the result is that LEKA LEKA (a word which means delicious and made of good ingredients) launches on April 1st in Virgin Active Cafes and online from our own website direct to your door. I am beyond proud and excited.
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