MARIELLA FROSTRUP LEADS A FEST OF CELEBRITY GUESTS AT HELLO!'S CHANGEMAKERS BREAKFAST

AS WE MARK WORLD MENOPAUSE MONTH AND CELEBRATE INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN SHINING A LIGHT ON MIDLIFE

- SOPHIE HAMILTON

Coming together to champion women and the progress made in highlighting female midlife health, celebrities and businesses joined HELLO! for an empowering and insightful breakfast panel event at London's stylish Langan's Brasserie.

A host of big names from entertainment, sports and business gathered at our Changemakers Breakfast, held during World Menopause Month to celebrate businesses supporting those affected by menopause and perimenopause in the workplace. The panel event, hosted by HELLO!'s chief content officer Sophie Vokes-Dudgeon, paid homage to our ongoing partnership with Wellbeing of Women on their Menopause Workplace Pledge, launched in 2021. The charity has been saving and changing the lives of women, girls and babies through groundbreaking research for 60 years.

The event was also a moment for us to honour some inspirational changemakers: the chair of Menopause Mandate Mariella Frostrup, Wellbeing of Women's Janet Lindsay, Marks & Spencer corporate affairs director Victoria McKenzieGould and lifestyle coach and former Olympic triple jumper Michelle Griffith Robinson.

Broadcaster, journalist and mother of two Mariella says of being named a Changemaker: "It's a huge compliment, very flattering indeed. Everyone likes to be celebrated, and it certainly doesn't happen often enough. But also to be celebrated in something that I'm so passionate about, which is the whole area of women's health.

"We have a working world that's entirely built around men's career experience and career line and it's really high time now in the 21st century that we tackle that, because women aren't stepping away from work.

"All of the data supports the fact that economically, companies that empower their female workforce do better financially, so it's a nobrainer. It's imperative to support women going through menopause at work, because when a woman reaches her 40s and 50s she's at the peak of her professional powers."