'My nan left me £150 and I made the best decision'

4 November 2025

Holly Haworth-HurstNorth West

News image — Helen (second from right) said she loves the salon and the staff are like family with some working there for more than 25 years

Cheadle Beauty Salon Five of the team at Cheadle Beauty Salon. The five women are all wearing black uniforms with Helen (second from right). They are all smiling. There are shelves filled with hair products behind them. — Helen (second from right) said she loves the salon and the staff are like family with some working there for more than 25 years

A woman who set up a beauty salon with £150 left to her in her grandmother's will said it was the "best decision she ever made" as she celebrates 50 years in business.

Helen was 21 in 1975 when she used the legacy - worth about £1,170 in today's money - to realise her dream of running her own salon.

She said it only "feels like yesterday" when she opened Cheadle Beauty Salon in Stockport and that she still has some of her original clients.

Helen, whose son and daughter also work at the salon, said some of her staff had worked there for 25 years. She said the business was "like home to me" and added that she wanted to carry on "as long as I can [because it] means everything to me".

The grandmother-of-six told BBC Radio Manchester her clients had included Coronation Street stars.

Cheadle Beauty Salon Helen has blonde hair and is wearing a black dress. She is standing next to a display of balloons which features a balloon champagne bottle with small balloon 'bubbles' coming out of it and a big '50' balloon. The balloons are white and gold in colour. There are steps behind Helen which lead to the front door of the salon. — Helen said the years had flown by

"I love it - I don't make a fortune but I enjoy what I do," added Helen. "That's important isn't it?"

She said the years had flown by.

"I just don't believe it because it just feels like yesterday that I started," she said.

She said she had no plans to put her feet up anytime soon.

"I'd like to keep going for at least another 10 years and I hope that [either] my son, who is a physio here, or my daughter who works with me would take it over."

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