Tribute to Michelle Rowntree
by WIN Admin — published in Press Releases
Michelle Rowntree, 33, wife, step-mum, daughter, sister, niece, aunty, friend, colleague and businesswoman. Michelle was many things to many people. Above all she was inspirational in the true sense of the word.
Michelle, after a long and valiant fight against cancer – which lasted more than 13 years – passed away on Thursday 17th June 2010. Some of the business community may not have known she had cancer. She didn’t like to tell people about it. She was so proud of being a great colleague and businesswoman that she didn’t want it to define who she was. In fact she didn’t allow it to.
WIN wanted to include something about Michelle in this month’s EZINE because she has been an incredibly inspirational and successful business woman in the north east for over a decade.
Michelle worked in PR and Marketing since graduating and was a success from the word ‘go’. She worked hard and through a heady mix of determination, commitment, talent and sheer ambition she worked her way up the ranks of the companies she worked for. She quickly became one of the region’s shining lights for the industry.
In the last few years she successfully set up her own agency, ‘Rowntree Gordo’ with her husband, Juan Gordo. In many of the businesses she worked in she mentored the younger staff; partly out of her love of helping people and seeing staff grow but also because they wanted to have even just a small portion of the marketing ‘know-how’ that Michelle so naturally had.
Michelle helped to win many industry awards for her brilliant marketing campaigns, which she was very proud of. More recently she was ecstatic when one of her own members of staff at Rowntree Gordo won the top young communicators prize at the CIPR PRide awards. She was absolutely delighted with that one.
She would probably be hugely embarrassed at this dedication to her. She didn’t like this sort of attention. She just liked to get on with the job in hand without any fuss surrounding her. Michelle always said she liked to live every day to the max, without any barriers or hurdles. Why not after all? In her own words:
Life is not about counting how many months or years or decades we have in front of us. Like the rest of the world, I have no idea. It’s about how we live them.
I don’t believe anything is set in stone for us, in the same way that I don’t believe in tarot cards or fortune tellers. I believe in me and the difference I can make.
Michelle loved butterflies, which is particularly poignant as she was a fervent supporter of the Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust, which helps people with thyroid cancer and is represented by the butterfly logo.
The north east has lost one of its bright lights, one of its butterflies. We’ve lost a talent and a truly brilliant woman.
She will be missed by many and always loved by lots.
You can read Michelle's story in full by visiting http://www.butterfly.org.uk/mstory.htm
and you can also donate to Michelle's chosen charity, Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust by visiting this site too.