'I was determined to live a life worth saving'

"Aren't you lucky to be saved?"

Dame Stephanie Shirley heard those words many times as a child.

As World War Two broke out in 1939, she travelled to Britain as an unaccompanied five-year-old Kindertransport refugee.

Her family had been living in the German city of Dortmund when Adolf Hitler came into power. Her father, a judge, lost his job - and the bad times began.

"It was not a good time to be Jewish," she said.

Determined not to be defined by her traumatic childhood, she started a company designed to provide jobs for women with children.

The software house, Freelance Programmers, opened in 1962, and changed the landscape for women working in technology by offering flexible working practices.

Of the first 300 staff, 297 were female.

"People laughed at me for starting a company - not only a company of women but a company led by a woman," Dame Stephanie said.

Dame Stephanie has recently been honoured with a Pride of Britain award, following years of dedicating her life to philanthropy.

She founded Autism at Kingwood, a service which now supports more than 100 autistic adults in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Using her own money, she also helped set up Prior's Court - a school for autistic young people in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Looking back on her life aged 90, Dame Stephanie believes her traumatic childhood led her to excel as an adult.

"Well, it was this business of people saying to me 'aren't you lucky to be saved?'" she said.

"It made me determined to make mine a life that was worth saving."

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