The little warrior started life as a sculpture created out of wire, brass buttons, nuts and bolts by our daughter, Megan when she was about ten years old and still at primary school. Her class had been looking at African art and she was inspired to create a piece of art that seemed to capture the naive energy of the African images that she had studied. Perhaps it was significant that her warrior , even then, was female. Many years later, after we had started Mitrybe, I gave Megan a book about Aboriginal art following a business trip to Australia. She clearly loved the colours and techniques used by the aboriginal artists and incorporated many of these into her work producing, amongst others, the little warrior sketch from her sculpture, now with a clear aboriginal influence. She persuaded us to include the image in the Mitrybe collection and we incorporated it on a number of sweatshirts and T-shirts in the summer of 2006.

On 2nd September 2006, Megan died, aged only 16, after biting into a piece of chocolate contaminated with a trace of nuts. We had known about her nut allergy for many years but were not prepared for the speed or the severity of the anaphylaxis that followed accidental exposure to nuts. Despite using an adrenalin auto-injector and getting her to hospital very quickly, we lost her that stormy Saturday afternoon, while the very elements seemed to scream at the injustice of it all. We had only just began to glimpse what she clould do and were now staring at a vacuum where she been.

Megan had always been creative and beautiful and her unique, confident style influenced much of what we did and still colours what we do now. We learned so much from her during her short life. Her philosophy was to live life to the full, enjoy doing whatever you can, where you are, with people that share your enthusiasm. Life is too short to waste, so grab your spear, get out there and join in.

In November 2006 we decided to redesign the Mitrybe label to incorporate Megan's little warrior - she reflects much of the enthusiasm that we see in the people around us who inspire our designs. Megan was not agressive and neither is her warrior. The image is one of energy and passion, screaming with enthusiasm and exhilaration, exhorting all around to join in. She loved to be a part of whatever was going on wherever she was. She was our brave little warrior.