A CHARLTON woman, who founded a successful website to provide advice on menopause, has won an award from retail entrepreneur Theo Paphitis.

Claire Hattrick, known as Clipboard Claire, won the award from the former Dragons’ Den Boss and his Small Business Sunday (#SBS) initiative for her success in running the website.

#SBS is a weekly event that business owner and entrepreneur Theo Paphitis runs on Twitter to help small businesses. Those who win the award get a retweet from his half a million followers. They are also invited to the yearly #SBS event.

Claire was awarded her certificate by Theo Paphitis at the annual #SBS event held in Birmingham.

“It was a fantastic day, with lots of opportunities to talk to businesses about our plans for the future with Clipboardclaire,” Claire said.

“Natwest, DHL, Autumn Fair, Ryman (to name a few) were there to chat to and really helpful with their advice. To receive this award from such an influential entrepreneur like Theo was brilliant for a small business like ours. 

“There were breakout rooms to attend with lots of businesses hosting chats and a superb fireside chat with Theo and his Dragons’ Den colleague Touker Suleyman.

“We talked to Theo and his #SBS team about our menopause help book and how we could get it into businesses, especially with a government menopause policy due out soon, and getting our book further afield and to a wider audience.

“Our vision is to get menopause to be talked about more freely and not the taboo subject it’s been for so long. With a potential one million women leaving the workplace there has never been a better time to talk to us about our menopause help book and workplace presentations/chats we are now doing.”

The 53-year-old founded clipboardclaire.com after her struggles with menopause.

She began her career as a sales executive, and following the birth of her identical twin daughters, Abby and Beth, she decided to follow her passion to become a beauty therapist.

However, like many women, Claire suffered from the effects of menopause as she got older, and she received symptoms including “debilitating” joint pain.

During the lockdown, she started her blog Clipboardclaire.com, aimed at supporting women with a variety of issues, including menopause and being a single parent.

Since its launch, thousands of women visit her blog daily to see what advice she has to offer.

Following her success, she also wrote an informative book on menopause.