DING Dong, Avon calling – the advertising slogan has become ingrained in the national consciousness.

The beauty company started in the US in 1886, and since 1959 there has been a small army of women (and some men) who go door to door selling Avon cosmetics in the UK.

But, for Vicky Pavitt, the job is not just about making money.

After the birth of her third child, she was struck down with post-natal anxiety.

She says: “It got so bad I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate. I would panic about cot death. I didn’t see friends or even go out of the house.”

These days Vicky, 34, of Carus Crescent, Colchester, is a different woman. The mum-of-four puts her transformation down to the unwavering support of family and friends, but also her decision to work for herself as an Avon representative.

Vicky adds: “One of my friends used to do it, and I thought, if I can’t get up in the morning or was struggling, I wouldn’t have to keep phoning in sick to my employer. I spoke to my GP about it, and the doctor said it was a good idea.”

She had worked for the Prison Service and as a receptionist at the Oaks Hospital, in Colchester, but thought working for herself would allow her the flexibility to fit it around her home life.

The choice led to success when Vicky was named as one of the top five Avon sales representatives in the UK last year.

She is a silver member of the Avon President’s Club, an elite group of representatives who have sold more than £15,500 worth of goods in a year.

Vicky says: “When I left the house for the first time with my books, I was shaking and shivering with nerves and I thought, I am never going to be able to do this, but it just came.”

Vicky is now building her own team of representatives, whom she nurtures and trains so they can achieve everything they want to. She has also taken part in a BBC documentary about perfume sales in the UK, which will air later in the year.

She says: “Being an Avon representative gives me a reason, a purpose and a motive to achieve something.

“You start off as a perfect stranger knocking on people’s doors, but you get to know people in your area and people get to know you. You get to socialise.

“The good thing about this is, if I can’t sleep at night, then I can go and drop books off through letterboxes, or go through customers’ orders at night with a glass of wine. No one is forcing you to do it.”

Avon was set up by Amercian businessman David McConnell, who wanted to offer women a way to take control of their lives and become more independent.

He was ahead of his time as women had not yet won the right to vote and were expected to stay at home.

The first Avon lady, Mrs Albee, of Winchester, New Hampshire, began her rounds in 1886.

Vicky says she doesn’t know exactly how much money she makes in a year. As a representative, she takes 25 per cent of her sales, but as a team leader she also makes a percentage on the sales of her team of 15 to 25 representatives.

Her husband Simon, whom she met when she was 16, is proud of her, she says, as Avon has given her a “new life”.

She adds: “My whole life can revolve around work, or work can revolve around my home life.”