INVITING US TO HER EAST SUSSEX HOME RACHEL WATKYN THE ‘DRAGONS’ DEN’ SUCCESS STORY ON TOUGH TIMES AND KEEPING IT REAL

Rachel Watkyn is one of life’s survivors. A multimillionaire entrepreneur who is the most successful female candidate ever to appear on Dragons’ Den, she has overcome a childhood of abuse and neglect, as well as beaten cancer, twice.

After spending her early years in a children’s home and then being raised by parents unfit for the job, resilience lies at the heart of her achievements. “We were feral children,” she says. “It really was every man for himself, when we’d ask ourselves: ‘What do I have to do to survive this day?’”

Rachel, 51, is talking to from her six-bedroom house in East Sussex, which she shares with her husband Steve Edmunds, 57. Set in an acre of land and with an outdoor swimming pool, it is in 2008 with her Tiny Box Company, which makes sustainable packaging, her business has gone on to employ a staff of almost 90 with a turnover of £10m last year.