MBE for eye products entrepreneur

Sue with Alexander (left) and Sam outside Windsor Castle

Sue Grant, the co-founder and managing director of the Body Doctor, has been presented with an MBE at Windsor Castle for Services to Entrepreneurship.

The award was announced in the King’s Birthday Honours and was presented by Princess Anne, the Princess Royal. Sue was the only award recipient for entrepreneurship at the ceremony.

Sue and her two sons, Adam and Sam Wymer, founded the Body Doctor in 2012, with her youngest son Alexander Grant joining the company in 2022. The family-run business behind the Eye Doctor range of eye drops, eyelid wipes and compresses won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2016 and again in 2021.

“It’s such an honour to be awarded an MBE after almost 30 years of working with microwavable hot compresses, a concept that was not available in the UK at the time,” commented Sue. “It’s incredible to think that I came back from New Zealand in 1996 with my two young sons and having to make a living, I formed the Natural Wheat Bag Company.”

The Natural Wheat Bag Company was based in Emley, West Yorkshire, and grew into a £1.8m turnover business, with customers including House of Fraser, the National Trust, John Lewis, Virgin and the QVC shopping channel.

The company won a raft of business awards, one of which resulted in being invited to Downing Street to meet the then prime minister, Tony Blair, and Sue was in the national finals of the Top 10 Women in Business Awards. This success culminated in the company winning the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2004, with Sue going on to co-invent the EyeBag compress.

The Body Doctor employs more than 30 people and is backed by science and supported by experts in the ophthalmic and medical fields, including TV’s Dr Hilary Jones.