But illness forced designer Emma Hardie to move into massage. She tells her story to GEMMA SIMMS...

Emma Hardie painted hotel suites for pop stars and worked with top interior designer Jocasta Innes. Then she was struck down with toxic poisoning.

Her serious illness forced Emma to quit the artistic job she loved so that she could recover fully.

The pretty blonde, of Banbury Road, Oxford - who has also appeared as an extra in the Spice Girls' movie Spiceworld - started a glamorous career in decorative painting on walls and furniture.

She decorated the inside of Haagen-Dazs ice cream parlours in Leicester Square, London, and Brighton, as well as undertaking private commissions.

"I did decorating slots for Anglia Television for a programme similar to Home Front, and have also been asked to go on the Richard and Judy show This Morning to do a decorating slot, although I haven't done that yet," said Emma, 35. Emma left Wychwood School in Oxford to study art for a year in London. She followed that with a course in paint finishes when she was 21, before starting to teach decorative paint finishes in Britain and San Francisco.

With her CV starting to look spectacular, she painted suites for Elton John and David Bowie at London's Savoy Hotel. "This was when I was freelance and they actually shared the same suite. It was done tastefully and not in zany colours, unfortunately. I was really chuffed to think that David Bowie would be sleeping in my handpainted room," she said.

But Emma's happiness was short-lived.

"I got toxic poisoning, was ill for ten years and struggled to pay my mortgage. I got ME as well for about two years.

"I started feeling ill right from the word go and didn't know why I felt so dizzy. I just kept on going and got more ill."

The poisoning reached its peak when she suffered a collapse. "My body was so ill I couldn't speak or move. I thought to myself, what on earth can I do with my life? I can only use my hands."

From the age of 13, Emma had massaged people and noticed their aches would go. She realised she could make a career of it, away from the painting and decorating.

Having finally recovered from her illness, she trained at Champneys Health Farm, where she was named student of the year and won an award for her thesis on ancient Japanese beauty.

She said: "I qualified and went straight to work at a health club in London, where I did massage and beauty.

"I treated the pop star Michelle Gayle, who came to me for a body detox treatment - even though she was the last person I would expect to have one.".

Now Emma works for herself and treats clients with the natural therapy Rejuvanessence, which she learned about at a health show. She works from a private room in north Oxford which is bright and airy to relax people as soon as they enter the room.

With Rejuvanessence, Emma can and offers to relax muscles with a massage that treats the whole person, not just the face.

"I still teach decorative painting now that I'm better and have got stronger, but if I feel ill again I'll have to stop," she said.

When she isn't busy painting or massaging, Emma can be found on film sets. She was an extra in the recent hit film Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. But it was Spiceworld that had the adrenalin pumping.

"We got about £80 a day. It was very exciting and we saw the paparazzi hiding in the building opposite with cameras under desks to follow the Spice Girls around. "If you are an extra you're not allowed to be in it more than once or twice.

"I was a make-up assistant. One day while I was there, I had a very bad back and I had to do some yoga in the loos on the set. There was a knock and Scary Spice was at the door with her bodyguard - I had to pull myself together quickly.

"I just apologised to her but she was very nice. The Spice Girls were very down-to-earth and full of energy and would say hello when they walked past.

"One of the extras on the set was in fact a Gladiator and when the Spice Girls saw him, Scary got terribly excited and jumped up and down!"

It may seem that Emma lost ten years through illness but she believes she is now doing other people the world of good with her massage and is happy that she can still paint.

"It's fate - I've been destined to use my hands. I was ill for so long but now everything has worked out and I'm really happy," she said.

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