Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Heather Anne Mills

Born on 12 January 1968
Heather Anne Mills is an English charity campaigner and former model, and the ex-wife of musician Paul McCartney.







Mills started her own model agency in 1986, and married Alfie Karmal on 6 May 1989, but divorced in 1991. Mills was living with a ski instructor in Croatia in 1990, just before the Croatian War started, later organising supplies for Croatia, and accepting modelling assignments in Austria to pay for the trip. In 1993, Mills was hit by a police motorbike and suffered serious injuries, losing her left leg 6 inches below her knee. She later sold her story to the News of the World, and used the proceeds to establish the Heather Mills Health Trust, which recycles discarded prosthetic limbs.

Mills met McCartney at a Pride of Britain charity event, and they were married on 11 June 2002. Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney on 28 October 2003, but separated from McCartney in 2006, which led to a highly publicised divorce. She was awarded £24.3 million in a court settlement on 17 March 2008, but received negative media coverage in the UK. Mills is a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) a patron of Viva!, the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, and a former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Association Adopt-A-Minefield programme, and vice-president of the Limbless Association. She continues to work on behalf of numerous campaigns, including aid for amputees, animal rights, and for the banning of landmines.

On 8 August 1993, Mills was standing with Mincione at the corner of De Vere Gardens and Kensington Road, London, but whilst crossing Kensington Road she was knocked down by a police motorcycle, which was going to an emergency. Mills suffered crushed ribs, a punctured lung, and the loss of her left leg 6 inches below the knee; a metal plate was later attached to her pelvis. In October 1993, she had another operation which further shortened her leg. Mills was awarded £200,000 by the police authority as recompense for her injuries, even though the police motorcyclist, PC Osbourne, was later cleared by magistrates of driving without due care and attention. After the accident, Mills sold her story to the News of the World, and gave other interviews, saying she earned £180,000. She used the money to set up the Heather Mills Health Trust which delivers prosthetic limbs to people, particularly children, who have lost limbs after stepping on landmines. Mills often shows people her prosthetic leg; once taking it off during an interview on the American talk show Larry King Live, in 2002







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