Heather Mills speaks about overcoming adversity and following your dreams during talk at Sunderland Business Festival

Heather, 54, grew up in Washington and was speaking at Seventeen Nineteen, the former Holy Trinity Church, as part of the City of Sunderland Business Festival.

The former fashion model, who was married to Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney for six years, talked about growing up in the North East and her “tough childhood“, including how her mum left when she was a child and how her dad “was all about appearances” and eventually went to prison for fraud.

Heather said: “We had a sofa one minute and the next it was being taken down the street by the bailiffs.”

She spoke about her first business venture, a stick on bra company from which she made £250,000 profit on before selling it on.

Heather also talked at length about the incident in 1993, when at the age of 25 she ended up having her left leg amputated below the knee after being knocked over by a police motorcycle – an incident which led to her becoming a vegan.

Heather said: “I had a friend who told me she’d healed herself by becoming a vegan. It may sound crazy, but when you’ve lost a leg you’ll try anything. My leg kept getting infected and they were amputating more and more of it so I needed to do something.

”I went to a special vegan retreat in the USA and within two weeks it was healed.”

It was this experience which eventually led to Heather forming VBites. Based in Peterlees, VBites is a plant-based meat alternative and vegan cheese company which has grown to include 140 vegan products sold in 24 different countries.

She added: “I started to realise how important veganism was. This was in 1993, 30 years before it was taken seriously. I wanted to go into a restaurant and wanted to feel normal, to eat what other people were eating and so I developed my first vegan burger in 1993.”

During her talk, Heather also spoke about budding entrepreneurs following their dreams and the importance of supporting local businesses.

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She said: “There is so much talent in the North East you just need to go after what you want – you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.

“I’d also encourage people to buy local. Don’t be lazy and just click on ten items from Amazon. Make conscious decisions before you buy things. Look at where they are manufactured and how they have been made.

“Is that cheap top you buy made by a child in India? Make informed choices and we can all make a difference.”

The City of Sunderland Business Festival runs from October 12 to 14 and includes a recruitment fair as well as inspirational talks from some of the city’s most successful entrepreneurs.