The owner of a popular health and nutrition shop in Marlow has written an open letter thanking her customers.

Carol and Joe Hill, who own Healthy Stuff in Liston Court, will retire this month after 17 years of service.

The shop has been bought by Hemant Vakharia who currently owns two other health shops in London.

Speaking of her retirement, Mrs Hill said: “I’ve never done a cheap range, as we’ve only done top of the range because we wanted to give the people of Marlow the best medical/nutrition possible, as the cheap stuff doesn’t really work.

“That’s been our ethos, hand on heart, is the best out there to my knowledge as the supplements we have are high of quality.

“We’ve hired a lot of girls over the years and even though they had plans to become doctors, nurses, vets etc, some of them have trained to be nutritionists, which is nice as we’ve influenced a lot of people and hopefully we’ve helped a lot of people along the way.

“And when there is a customer who comes in and thanks you for your help, it gives you a tremendous feeling.

“People have come in and have said that they’re a lot better because of us, where they’ve given us flowers, cards and chocolates.”

Mr and Mrs Hill originally planned to open a hotel in Athens which specialised in speciality diets.

However, after the couple were the victims of a con when planning their hotel, they decided to move back to England where Mrs Hill trained in several activities such as aromatherapy, reflexology and massaging whilst doing courses in nutrition.

And after working in a health shop in Wokingham, this inspired the Hills to launch the Healthy Stuff in Marlow back in 2001.

She added: “After I worked in Wokingham, I thought I could do this, so we decided to go to Marlow as my son was at Borlase and there wasn’t a shop here that focused on nutrition.

“Also, the people from Marlow are lovely and we decided to start from scratch.

“And even though the ownership will be different, there’s no doubt I’ll be popping in here and there because I love the shop so much.”

Mrs Hill’s letter to the people of Marlow:

Dear Marlow,

It is with very mixed emotions that Joe and I are retiring this month.

We have loved being part of the Marlow community and it has been a huge joy to watch our child customers grow up.

We are so proud to have been of help to so many people over the nearly 18 years we have been here.

Healthy Stuff will continue just as it is with our wonderful staff, (to whom we are extremely grateful), giving professional advice and selling top quality products.

We have been bought by Hemant Vakharia and he owns two other health food shops in London so he really knows the business and is keen to get to know you.

We believe owning a small group of shops is the only way forward for the continuation and protection of independent health food stores.

We are so pleased to have found someone who has the same ethos as us to continue serving the people of Marlow.

We hope you will continue to enjoy shopping at Healthy Stuff.

I do beg all of you to look after your health.

No one else can do it for you.

The NHS is really not going to recover any time soon.

So prevention is better than a cure!

So come in and talk to the professionally qualified practitioners working in the shop and they can advise on how you can achieve and maintain good health.

Many thanks for your years of patronage and friendship, we wish you good health and happiness.

Love,

Carol and Joe.