HUSBAND Tom Rowberry, 74, of Radcliffe-on-Trent, recently received a phone call from Landmere Nursing Home to say that his wife Kathleen had been named as one of the residents who has been subjected to alleged mistreatment, and that police were investigating.

"I have not been told what the specific allegations are," he said.

Mr Rowberry feels guilty for allowing his 76-year-old wife, who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease, to stay at Landmere.

He tried to look after her himself until he suffered a stroke three years ago and it became impossible.

"You have to put your faith in these people.

"I'm glad she has since been moved.

"I'm now starting to recall times when I was concerned."

Mr Rowberry said he was most annoyed that his wife had a broken hip, but this was left undiagnosed for some time before she was admitted to hospital.

He said: "I think this should have been spotted earlier. She went through a lot of pain.

"She has been moved into another home now."

A recent Care Quality Commission report into the care home made reference to a woman who was seen by inspectors as having green discharge coming out of her eyes.

In the report it states that the nurse in charge confirmed the resident was receiving treatment for the condition.

However, the inspectors found that this was not the case.

Mr Rowberry said: "My wife was the resident with the eye discharge which I had repeatedly drawn to their attention.

"My wife also suffered a broken hip.

"She was referred to the QMC, where she was operated on within 24 hours.

"I feel the whole situation has been brought about by poor management and repeated cost-cutting leading to poorly paid, demotivated staff."

FAMILIES of residents at a troubled Nottingham nursing home have come forward with stories of how their loved ones were treated.

Their testimony comes after the Post revealed earlier this month that Landmere Nursing Home would close, police were investigating the alleged mistreatment of patients and its owners admitted using "outdated care practices".

The home failed in a recent inspection carried out by Government watchdog the Care Quality Commission, and subsequently Notts County Council has cancelled its contract with the home and rehoused more than 20 residents.

Widow Maureen Pycroft of Ruddington Lane, Wilford, says she feels let down by the care her husband David Barry Pycroft received during a four-year stay in the home, when it was owned by Life Style.

Mr Pycroft, known as Barry, died at 66 after suffering severe Alzheimer's Disease. He was admitted to the home in 2003.

Like other families with a relative suffering from the disease, Maureen thought initially that her husband would receive good care as Landmere marketed itself as a home that specialises in dementia.

But she soon changed her mind.

During her husband's time in Landmere, Maureen and her family made more than seven formal complaints against the home, and she documented in personal diaries a day-by-day account of what happened to Barry.

The care home admitted in letters to Maureen that a member of staff failed to clean her husband's room, and dressed him in old clothes.

Acting on the information in her complaints the nursing home was inspected on October 14, 2004, by the now-defunct Commission for Social Care Inspection and found to be lacking in certain areas such as:

A resident who was only supposed to eat blended food was given sandwiches.

A shower used for cleaning residents was broken for four months.

Dirty pans were used to serve food.

She said: "Yes I feel let down, about what went off at the home.

"Some of the carers were very good, but there was often not enough staff.

"I remember once going to visit Barry and he was sitting and his trousers were wet. The food was atrocious and there were always awful smells in the home which made you retch."

A spokesman for Life Style said: "We are unable to comment on individual cases due to confidentiality and data protection; however, Life Style Care take all feedback and complaints very seriously. All issues are fully investigated and dealt with in line with our policies and procedures.

"Life Style Care acquired Landmere Nursing Home in November 2011. Outdated care practices have resulted in poor occupancy and high use of agency staff.

"The resulting high operating costs have made the business financially unsustainable thus necessitating the closure of the home.

"Landmere management has shared its decision with Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottingham City Council and the Care Quality Commission. These agencies are aware of the planned closure of the home."

Caroline Baria, service director for joint commissioning, quality and business change at the county council, said: "We terminated our contract with Landmere Care Home in Wilford on May 9, 2013, following careful consideration with the Care Quality Commission and the local NHS.

"We had suspended the contract with the home in March due to a number of concerns regarding the care, treatment and support of residents at the home. We had been working with the CQC, the NHS and the managers of the home to try and improve outcomes for residents.

"We were not satisfied that the necessary improvements had been made, so were left with no option other than to terminate our contract. We have been working with the residents and relatives to facilitate them to move to suitable alternative accommodation."

STEPHEN Jukes bought a house in Bulgaria with the intention of doing it up and then giving it to his sons as an investment.

He took a trip over to Bulgaria to work on the house in early 2009 and he says he left contact details with the home - both verbal and written - before he left.

In the event of an emergency he says he told staff to inform him or his nephew, Justin Jukes, who was living in the UK at the time, if anything untoward should happen to his mother.

Unbeknown to him his mother, Mary Dorothy Jukes, died in late February 2009. She was cremated on March 9 that year.

Neither Mr Jukes or his nephew received a call from the home to inform them of her death.

Landmere Nursing Home was being run by the now-defunct company Southern Cross at the time of her death.

He said it was only on his return to the UK that he rang the home to tell staff he would be visiting his mum that coming weekend that he was informed of her death.

Mr Jukes said he tried to pursue legal action against Southern Cross, but had to pull out because it was becoming too expensive.

FRAUD is possibly one of the oldest professions – recorded instances date back to earlier than 400BC when gold was coated with pottery to enable it to be smuggled past toll-gates in China.

Since then, fraud of every type has evolved into a global industry of mammoth proportions taking funds away from often vital services.

The National Fraud Authority's Annual Fraud Indicator 2012 estimated losses at over £70 billion in the UK alone, a staggering amount of money. All too often, the frauds are not the one-off "get rich quick" ones that make exciting film material.

They are low level/high volume/ just under the radar frauds that can go on undetected for years.

There is also a growing trend to the more "traditional" frauds, especially as organisations shrink creating greater opportunity for fraud through the lack of segregation of duties and prevention controls as focus moves ever more to saving money and achieving targets.

There is no mystery to fraud or bribery and the Fraud Act 2006 and the Bribery Act 2010 have gone a long way to provide clarity making life easier for investigators, prosecutors and jurors (a distinct improvement from the over-complex and tired legislation the Acts replace).

The Fraud Act distils fraud into three main offences: Fraud by False Representation (I tell you a lie – you give me money) which can be verbal, written, via web-sites or simply implied; Fraud by Failure to Disclose (where there is a legal duty to do so); and Fraud by Abuse of Position (being in position of trust and gaining an advantage or making someone suffer a loss) through being in such a position.

In addition to giving (or offering), accepting (or requesting) a bribe, under the Bribery Act it is a specific offence (to prevent "facilitation" payments) to bribe a Foreign Public Official, plus there is a corporate offence of Failing to Prevent Bribery.

The old adage "prevention is better than a cure" certainly resonates in the fraud arena and there are a number of steps that should be taken to move an organisation's anti-fraud capability and response to one of "action" rather than "reaction". Rather than waiting for an incident to occur, steps should be taken to understand the nature and scale of risks and then develop a strategy, supported by a robust policy and controls framework to support it.

Where fraud is discovered, it should be professionally investigated and all sanctions (criminal, civil, disciplinary and regularity) considered.

Tip of the week:

It is vital that you consider speaking to an experienced and specialist Fraud and Risk Advisor to help identify vulnerable areas and provide guidance on the necessary steps required to protect your organisation from potential fraud and security threats.

NOTTINGHAM company Scientific Laboratory Supplies has walked away with the award for Outstanding Achievement in this year's Medilink East Midlands Business Awards.

The company collected the prize at awards dinner held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, next to East Midlands Airport as part of Medilink's Innovation Day.

Based on the Wilford Industrial Park on the outskirts of the city, Scientific Laboratory Supplies is the largest independent supplier of laboratory equipment, consumables, chemicals and life science products in the UK.

The award recognises the company's achievement in winning a major contract to supply the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, which commended the firm's technical quality, flexibility and innovative approach.

The commercial impact for Scientific Laboratory Supplies has been significant; not least the adoption of safety and quality standards and a drive to implement higher level quality procedures throughout the whole company.

Operations director Peter Lister, said: "We were shortlisted for two Medilink awards, including the Export Achievement Award, which is recognition in itself.

"Winning the Outstanding Achievement Award is a brilliant accomplishment for the Scientific Laboratory Supplies team, as is the recognition within the East Midlands life science community."

The Outstanding Achievement Award is sponsored by Morningside Pharmaceuticals.

Morningside CEO Dr Nik Kotecha said: "Exceptional achievement in the life sciences sector is something we believe in, which is why we sponsor this award. It provides the recognition that high achieving companies deserve.

"It is good to see independent companies like Scientific Laboratory Supplies making excellent progress in a marketplace dominated by a few large companies.

"The award recognises drive, innovation and commitment to quality that is good for the whole sector, as it sets a standard for others to emulate."

In addition to Scientific Laboratory Supplies, four other companies won Medilink awards in this year's competition. They are Spirit Healthcare for Partnership with the NHS; Francis Lamont Innovations for Best Start Up, TerrainHopper for Innovation, and Quadralene Group for Export Achievement, further evidence of the East Midlands' impact and influence in the healthcare and bioscience business sector.

Speaking after the awards were announced, Dr Darren Clark, chief executive of Medilink East Midlands, said: "Scientific Laboratory Supplies has shown great tenacity and drive in winning a major new client and using this in turn to drive internal development as well as creating new jobs for the city."

A FAILING nursing home did not inform the family of an 84-year-old resident that she had died and her body had been cremated.

Distraught son Stephen Jukes, 56, returned from a trip to Bulgaria, where he was building a house, to discover staff at Landmere Nursing Home, Wilford, had not told him his mother was dead. He said: "I phoned up to say I would be visiting her on the Sunday and the person on the phone just said 'she's dead'. That's how I found out."

His mother Mary Jukes had died three months before.

"I then found out they had cremated her at Wilford Hill and there is no plaque to mark her death. I was so taken aback by what had happened I didn't know quite how to react," said the Beeston resident. "She was supposed to be buried with my father," he added.

At the time of Mrs Jukes' death, in February 2009, the home was being run by Southern Cross.

Before Mr Jukes set off for Bulgaria he says he left written and verbal contact details with the home and he had also made it known that he was to be contacted should anything untoward happen to his mother, who suffered from dementia.

"I'm so hurt by what has happened, it was a lot to deal with," he said.

"I started drinking heavily and it was awful. I was in a bad way.

"She was given a pauper's funeral," he said.

Mr Jukes, who owns a record shop in the West End Arcade, said he started legal proceedings against Southern Cross but he had to pull out because it became too expensive to continue.

The father-of-two, told his story after the Post revealed that the care home was being investigated by the police for the alleged mistreatment of patients. No arrests have been made to date.

The home is in the process of closing down after a damning report from inspectors working for the Care Quality Commission, and Notts County Council has terminated its contract with home.

A statement on the website for Southern Cross says: "In September 2011 Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC announced that it was restructuring and that this would mean that all the care homes it operated would be transferred to other operators.

"Southern Cross is now in the process of a solvent wind down of its operations."

THE wife of a motorcyclist who died in a crash on the A611 has paid tribute to him.

David Neil Bacon, 58, of Hucknall, was killed when his bike was in collision with a car on Sunday afternoon as he headed home from a motorcycling event.

His wife, Carolyne, 51, said: "We are very shocked and he will be missed. We've had a lot of support from friends.

"He just enjoyed life – he was out on his bike and had been to a show. He was coming home when it happened."

She added: "He was a good honest man who did not deserve this."

Mr Bacon, a father of two, had lived in the area all his life.

He was around a mile and a half from home when the crash happened at about 2.50pm.

His blue Yamaha motorbike was in collision with the silver Kia Venga car on the Hucknall-bound side of the A611, close to the exit for Newstead.

Mr Bacon died at the scene.

A woman, who was a passenger in the Kia, was taken to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre with minor injuries. No one else was hurt. The road was closed while police examined the scene. It re-opened at 9.20pm.

Mr Bacon was a self-employed coffee machine engineer, who loved motorcycles and model flying in his spare time. He was a member of Goosedale Model Flying Club, based in Goosedale Lane, Bestwood Village.

Notts Police have launched an investigation in to the crash and are appealing for witnesses. No arrests have been made.

An inquest will be held into Mr Bacon's death at a later date.

Anyone who saw the crash, or who has as any information about it, is being asked to contact Notts Police on 101, quoting incident 495 of June 16.

Alternatively contact Crimestoppers 0800 555111.

A CRICKET-THEMED mural painted by children was unveiled yesterday at Trent Bridge.

The community art installation has been designed to welcome international cricket supporters to the county ahead of the England v Australia Ashes Test from Wednesday, July 10 to Sunday, July 14.

Twelve youngsters aged between 11 and 16 and representing Trent Bridge Community Trust's Positive Futures, took part in the project, which depicts the history of Ashes Test matches at Trent Bridge.

The new mural adorns the previously blank site surrounding Nottinghamshire County Council's Trent Bridge House.

Children from Positive Futures Rushcliffe and Positive Futures Hawtonville, near Newark, spent the weekend painting and adding detail to the images, which were hand drawn by local artists.

Councillor John Knight, committee chairman for culture at Nottinghamshire County Council, unveiled the work at the site in Radcliffe Road yesterday.

He said: "This mural is a fantastic example of community work and we are very excited that the work of young people will enjoy such a high profile during this Ashes summer."

The installation is one of several projects led by the Trent Bridge Community Trust, the charitable arm of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, as part of an ongoing commitment to the Ashes Legacy Partnership.

Trent Bridge is the only venue outside London chosen to host Ashes Tests both this year and in 2015.

Positive Futures is a pioneering scheme which gives direction to young people.

Mandy Wright, co-ordinator of the scheme in Hawtonville, said: "What we achieved in one weekend has been fantastic and the young people came out buzzing. It inspires them and gives them something to aim for. It stops the boredom. They were really proud of what they have done."

Ethan Coulter, 16, from South Nottinghamshire Academy, was involved in the project.

He said: "I wanted to get involved in something that will be seen by people all over the world.

"It was a good laugh and has made me want to do more art and it helped me express myself. The urban art aspect was a good twist to it."

Tickets for the match from Wednesday, July 10 to Sunday, July 14 sold out within hours of going on sale but community groups that have contributed to key projects, including the youngsters involved in the mural, have been presented with complimentary tickets.

How would you describe what you do to a Martian?

I run a business that supports people into work and training.

If you weren't what you are what would you be?

I would have liked to have been a sports journalist.

Who inspires you most and why?

Nelson Mandela is at the top of my thoughts at the moment. No real need to expand regarding why he is inspirational to so many people.

What do you wish you'd invented?

The worldwide web. Partly because it was invented during my lifetime, by a Briton, who effectively gave it away for free.

What would you do differently?

Taken a more carefree approach during my youth.

What I'm watching and listening to...

Watch whatever the latest DVD to have dropped through my letter box is – normally a thriller. I have Radio 5 live on in the car.

My advice to the Government is...

Invest the time to build a long-lasting cross-party consensus on education, particularly in relation to preparing our young people for work.

If I wasn't doing business in Nottingham, I'd go to...

My other "home" city of Norwich.

Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?

Linkedin

I'd be lost without my...

Watch.

What I'd really like to say to the banks is…

Don't forsake small businesses for recapitalisation.

Friends would say I'm…

Sometimes poor at staying in touch.

My indulgence is...

Food. I generally eat as much in one day as some people do in a week.

One thing in the world I'd change right now...

Youth unemployment rates.

The best place to eat and drink is...

Round the dinner table at home with family and friends.

I drive...

An Audi

My most important set of numbers is...

The number of unemployed young people in Notts.

I always have in my pocket...

A handkerchief

I'll tell you what annoys me...

People that don't listen and can only see their side of the story.

What makes me laugh is...

My daughters.

My last holiday was to...

Holland.

I am currently reading...

The Art of Decisions, by Chris Blake

The one thing I've learned...

Those who set the highest standards generally achieve the most.

SINCE the middle ages, students and academics have moved between countries, largely unrestrained, to share and develop ideas and knowledge. The UK is second only to the United States as a destination of choice for students from other countries.

International students bring huge benefits to universities but also to the local communities in which they live and the UK economy more broadly.

Indeed education is one of our country's great success stories and one of the UK's most successful export industries, delivering around £8 billion of income in 2009 (when the last authoritative estimate was made).

In terms of net exports, education remained one of the most valuable industries that year, behind financial and other business services.

The University of Nottingham has over 9,000 international undergraduates and postgraduates living on campus and in the city who bring significant resources to the local economy.

In a period of uncertainty over future levels of home student demand and reduced direct government support for universities, the income received from international students' tuition fees plays an increasingly important part of institutional finances.

Government, though, remains in a rather divided position with some celebrating the contribution made by international students and others preferring to reduce numbers in order to reduce immigration.

The most recent figures show that net migration to the UK fell again mainly thanks to a 23% drop in the number of students coming to the country to study.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics on 23 May showed that 190,000 migrants arrived to study in the year to September 2012, a fall of 56,000 on the previous year.

Mark Harper, Immigration Minister, continues to insist that the UK remains open for business to the brightest and best international students and "there is no limit on the number of international students who can come here and graduates can stay and work in the UK if they get a graduate level job." This is technically correct.

However, the Government's policies are having an impact in reducing student numbers and in certain parts of the world applications are dropping because the appearance created by all this talk of reducing immigration is that Britain really isn't very welcoming to international students.

It really doesn't help UK universities' international recruitment efforts.

Others in government are more supportive though. Speaking recently Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, stressed that international students were "good for the country, good for universities".

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has also made a strong case for supporting rather than hindering international students wishing to study in the UK.

The UK's immigration reforms have received a great deal of international media attention and unfortunately much of the coverage has emphasised that there are significant barriers to studying in the UK.

One example of how the UK's attitude towards international students has been viewed overseas is the reaction to the UK Border Agency's decision to revoke London Metropolitan University's licence to sponsor international students.

In certain parts of the world, this has fuelled a perception that the UK is not as welcoming to international students as it perhaps once was, or at least that, that other countries look more attractive to prospective students considering enrolling overseas.

There have been significant declines in the number of new entrants to UK universities in 2011-12 from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia.

Other parts of Europe are now looking more attractive than they were and are catching up with the UK's popularity as destinations for international students.

A Home Office study in 2011 showed that the levels of visa non-compliance for university-sponsored international students was at most two per cent, a very small proportion indeed. Since then significant efforts have been made to reduce this further.

While universities support efforts to tackle abuse, it is more important to recognise the significant benefits that the overwhelming majority of international students bring to the UK.

Of course students really aren't immigrants and should not be counted in the immigration figures.

Many MPs across all parties in a recent debate in the House of Commons argued for the removal of students from immigration targets and stressed the positive contribution they make to our national life.

International students come to the UK for three or four years and contribute hugely to many aspects of our society through the value of the money they bring and spend on fees, on accommodation and on a wide range of local services as well as the vibrancy they add to life in this country.

On graduation, these students return to their home country as wonderful ambassadors for Great Britain; they become passionate advocates in their home countries for UK higher education, create new businesses and employ other UK graduates and then some will become generous donors to their university.

Concerns about the Government's visa changes remain though as, regardless of their merits, they send negative signals to other countries about the value we place on international students.

Higher education is one area in which the UK punches above its weight – we have only one in 100 of the world's population but one in seven of the world's top 200 universities.

International students contribute massively to our economy and to our national life and prosperity and we should continue to welcome them to this country and remove them from the political debate about immigration.

Instead, let's celebrate this great British success story.

A FORMER Nottingham midwife is topping the bill at the home of Wagner's opera this summer.

World-renowned opera singer Catherine Foster has landed a principal role as Brünnhilde in German composer Wagner's opera, Der Ring des Nibelungen, at this year's exclusive Bayreuth Festival.

Ms Foster was a midwife at Nottingham's City Hospital until leaving to pursue professional singing in her late twenties and has since created a successful opera career in Europe.

Ms Foster said: "In 1993, I was looking after a couple who had just come on to the labour suite and as we were chatting I found out that the husband was quite a figure in the amateur opera circuit of Nottingham.

"I said that I was interested in singing and was looking for a teacher at that time and he gave me some names that led me to Pamela Cook MBE."

Pamela Cook, who founded internationally-renowned Mansfield-based girls' choir Cantamus, encouraged Catherine into professional singing and she left midwifery in 1995 after securing a place at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Catherine said: "I remember standing outside the door with my resignation in my hand and my heart in my mouth and even walked away once.

"Then I just thought – I can either go through life as a 'could have been' or I could give it a go and see where the experience took me."

Catherine "just sort of fell into" opera singing, adding: "When I first started learning to sing, I said I didn't want to be an opera singer and I never wanted to sing Wagner. It was pretty naïve of me really, to say I didn't like something I had never seen.

"Opera was originally written for the ordinary person, it's just people who have made it exclusive and highbrow and it's not – to see it and hear it live is incredible."

Catherine moved to Germany to pursue an opera career in 2001, and is now an established Wagnerian singer who has performed as Brünnhilde across Europe, recording performances to DVD, Blu-Ray and CD.

Brünnhilde appears in three of the four operas which make up er Ring des Nibelungen, commonly known as the Ring Cycle.

The operas are around 18 hours long in their entirety and are based loosely on characters from Norse sagas and epic German poem Nibelungenlied.

Ms Foster said: "I'm very happy that I've done quite a few Ring Cycles before and that I have got experience because Bayreuth is a lot of pressure.

"I have been singing this repertoire since 2007 and I learn something every single time I do this; I find something else in the music, something else in the lines – I'm never bored with it."

Catherine is now in full rehearsals in Bayreuth, the home of Wagner's self-designed opera house, the Festspielhaus, dedicated solely to Wagner's works.

Festival tickets can take ten years to obtain, but two lucky attendees at this year's performances will be Catherine's parents Alan and Josephine Foster, of Wilford.

Mrs Foster admitted neither she nor her husband had been interested in opera before Catherine's move to operatic singing, but said: "We're very proud, and she has worked extremely hard and she deserves the success she is enjoying.

"This operatic singing is a gift to her."

EIGHT years ago, Sarah Blake and Kerrie van Ristell found themselves facing redundancy. It was unexpected. They were professionals, they had worked hard to get their qualifications. And they worked for Boots, a Nottingham company which was a by-word for security.

This was 2005. Boots had earlier set up a Wellbeing service which included chiropody, looking after people's feet.

But Boots got cold feet and, to mix metaphors, pulled the plug on its business initiative leaving staff like Sarah and Kerrie without a base from which to practise their profession.

The story is about following the two women taking bold decisions to set up their own clinic. They found premises in Lower Parliament Street, doing much of the fitting out work themselves.

Boots generously gave them their equipment at advantageous prices. Banks declined loans because they did not know what chiropodists did. In fact they perform a vital service keeping feet in good shape, especially important for the elderly and those with debilitating illnesses such as diabetes.

Sarah and Kerrie were thrilled, all smiles when only weeks ago they passed the £1 million turnover mark since opening the clinic. They have 5,000 patients registered with them. They have survived the growing pains many small businesses experience such as taking on more staff.

Today, Sarah is 36 and Kerrie 33 and they still worry about issues ahead. Kerrie and her husband will want to start a family. It is still difficult for women to combine their own business and have children.

The two met more than ten years ago working together in the same branch of a national foot specialist and quickly became firm friends. They bought a flat together, money which later proved useful when they decided to set up their own clinic.

Sarah recalls her first business knock after leaving university. She opened a small clinic in her home town of Burton-on-Trent only to find a short while after that Boots was planning a trial chiropody service down the road.

She recalled: "I had been in business six or seven months when Boots set up their first flagship chiropody department. It was in a tiny branch of Boots, 200 yards from me.

"To be newly qualified, to start from scratch with no patients, and as I was just getting started, Boots opened. with their first-ever chiropody service. I was not going to fight with Boots."

It was a tough and undeserved lesson so she licked her wounds and joined a cruise liner as a ship chiropodist, seeing "half the world".

Kerrie said that their time together at a national chain taught them a lot about what they would and wouldn't do in their own business. They moved to Boots flagship Wellbeing clinic in the Victoria Centre only to be told three months later that it was closing.

Setting up their own business was now inevitable. "You either give it a go or fail," said Sarah.

The school of hard knocks has taught both to be careful with money. Sarah watches sales, outgoings and cashflow like a hawk. They each know precisely what the figures are day by day.

The tough thing now is balancing leisure and work, the constancy of having their own business which the two agree takes them over.

Kerrie said: "Taking a step back, it is really hard to carry on a normal life outside work. The pressure is on to keep it running once you employ people. Today there are six of us altogether – another part-time chiropodist and three receptionists.

"Once you have them on your pay roll, you have responsibility for others," added Kerrie. "It makes life decisions very hard such as trying for a baby or having a family."

It is a subject very much on their minds and how it will be managed. "I will only be able to take three months off," said Kerrie. "A year off is a luxury which people in the NHS or education take for granted.

"The business would never survive beyond three months if I wasn't there full time. A lot of my patients would not go elsewhere with Sarah and our third chiropodist covering. But it puts them under a lot of pressure. That is quite a worry.

"It is very frustrating when we have paid out so much tax and corporation tax over the years that we can't access what we have paid to help cover the business. My fear is if we have to take out a business loan.

"As a new mother, it will put me under a lot of pressure. Three months become a cut-off and I have to be back at work regardless. It has to be done. If I didn't have a business, I would probably have had children five years ago."

Growing pains show themselves elsewhere. Employing another full-time chiropodist would mean expanding the premises.

Recently, Feet First Chiropody advertised for a part time permanent receptionist and more than 300 applied.

These are issues that the two will get through because they are such good friends. "The business is our baby but cannot be the only thing in our lives," added Sarah. "It has to be our priority – it pays our mortgages, it pays our bills, our staff.. You cannot say it is not a massive part of our lives. But you don't want to get to aged 80 and say: 'I had an amazing business and I did nothing else'."