Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, said today that she is suffering from Hepatitis C.

Dame Anita, who recently featured in a survey of the most admired powerful women, said she is also suffering cirrhosis of the liver, one of the long-term effects of the disease.

She said contracted the virus through a blood transfusion while giving birth to her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971, but only discovered she was carrying it after routine blood tests.

“I have Hepatitis C,” she said. “It’s a bit of a bummer but you groan and move on. I had no idea that I had this virus. I was having routine blood tests when it showed up.”

She added: “What I can say is that having Hep C means that I live with a sharp sense of my own mortality, which in many ways makes life more vivid and immediate. It makes me even more determined to just get on with things.”

The entrepreneur, who is 64, also announced that she has become a patron of the Hepatitis C Trust, a charity she turned to two years ago when she first found out she had the virus. She pledged to campaign to increase public awareness, calling for more money to be devoted to the matter and questioning the success of a Government awareness campaign.

Known as a “silent killer”, people infected with Hepatitis C often show no initial symptoms, and many do not realise they are carrying it.

“Well, I’ve always been a bit of a ‘whistleblower’ and I’m not going to stop now,” she said. “I want to blow the whistle on the fact that Hep C must be taken seriously as a public health challenge and must get the attention and resources that it needs.”

The Department of Health insisted it had a clear national framework for action to deal with the virus and recognised the importance of raising awareness.

“A key factor in improving prevention, diagnosis and treatment is raising awareness and we are funding a number of ongoing campaigns,” said a spokesman. “These include a Hepatitis C information pack for GPs and practice nurses, a new national freephone information line and advertorials in consumer magazines.”

He added that the Department will have spent £4m on raising awareness of the virus by the end of this year and was presently looking at the option of national advertising to boost the campaign.

Although often presenting no symptoms until years after infection, long-term effects of the disease can include liver damage and cancer. Men are more than twice as likely to be infected as women.

The virus is transmitted by infected body fluids and people who share needles are particularly at risk. Unprotected sex as well as sharing toothbrushes and razors also carries a small risk.

No vaccine exists to prevent Hepatitis C infection, but treatments are available which are effective in more than half of cases. A routine blood screening programme for the disease was introduced in 1991.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the number of adults infected with Hepatitis C in England was around 231,000 in 2003, the majority of whom have not been diagnosed. But as many as 600,000 people are living with the virus, according to the British Liver Trust, with many unaware of their condition, and only 7,000 having been treated.

The HPA added that the number of people living with serious liver disease caused by the virus could more than double by 2015. An estimated 4,855 people were living with cirrhosis of the liver or serious liver failure in 2005 – a figure expected to rise to 10,090 by 2015.

The British Liver Trust said it applauded Dame Anita’s courage in sharing her experience, saying that Hepatitis C “can be a devastating virus, with the potential to lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.”

The Trust added: “Hepatitis C can be contracted in a variety of ways, yet many people find themselves living with the stigma so often experienced by those with liver disease. They have to deal with seriously disabling symptoms with little easily available treatment and support.”

Dame Anita first set up the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976. Producing a range of environmentally-friendly, non-animal tested cosmetics and skincare products, the brand has risen to 2,000 stores around the globe. Last year, Dame Anita sold her stake to the French giant L’Oreal in a £652m takeover.

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