The daughter of Raymond and Margaret Sturge née Keep, she was educated at St James's School in West Malvern and at the Open University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in 1978.
Eccles worked voluntary at the Middlesbrough Community Council from 1955 to 1958, and was partner in a graphic design business from 1963 to 1977.
Lady Eccles was further a member of the Advisory Council on Energy Conservation at the Department of Energy from 1982 to 1984, of the Widdicombe Inquiry into Local Government and the Home Office Advisory Panel on Licences for Experimental Community Radio from 1985 to 1986, and of the British Rail Eastern Board from 1986 to 1992.
Between 1990 and 1999, she was a member of the Unrelated Live Transplant Regulatory Authority and between 1991 and 1996 director of the National and Provincial Building Society.
Lady Eccles was later the Chairman of Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Health Authority from 1988-2000.