Here at thebestof Bolton, we have a fantastic group of businesses, from a huge range of sectors. You'll no doubt be familair with a great many of them already. But what about the people behind the businesses. Well, allow me to introduce Karen Willcock, of Bolton Therapy Centre.

Karen has over 20 years experience in physiotherapy, across the UK and the wider world. She has degrees on top of qualifications (she is, in fact, professionally known as Karen Willcock, MSc, MCSP, MBAcC), and runs the hugely successful Bolton Therapy Centre, which is also accredited extensively. But, did you also know she is an avid bee-keeper, and has many of them at home? Well, she does.

I've known Karen for several years (although, from what I hear recently, she didn't know she knew me), some time before I started here at thebestof Bolton. Her son and my brother attend the same school and are very good friends. He went on holiday to Portugal with them not too long ago, and reported back that Karen is "hilarious". And she really is.

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She was recently asked a series of questions, and here they are below, along with her answers:

1. What do you enjoy most about what you do?

I really enjoy being able to make a difference to people's health by reducing their pain or aiding recovery of an injury. laughter is the best medicine so we try to make a visit friendly and fun as well as professional.

2. What advice would you give someone just starting out in the your line of business?

Build up your stamina as you're going to need it! always be honest with patients about what you can and can't do, and you will retain their loyalty.

3. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?

Renovate the cellar and turn it into a multi-bed acupuncture clinic so that affordable acupuncture could be available to all.

4. What do you see as the coming trends in your sector of business?

Insurance companies will continue to drive down prices and quality; pressures on the NHS will do the same for length of treatment, so quality hands on treatment will be at a premium.

5. Describe the strangest or funniest incident you’ve experienced in your business?

I have performed spinal manipulation in some strange places, including on a boardroom table, in a gypsy caravan and in a tent, but the strangest was probably on an ocean going clipper ship which was a sail training vessel for young people. The skipper had to be treated bent round the mast, which went down through the centre of the galley table, with everyone else still in bunks alongside him!  

6. What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?

Word of mouth is by far the best way, so we always tell patients to recommend a friend.

7. What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?

I'll borrow one from what a recent patient, who is in the health insurance business, said about us recently (and he has had expeience of lots of physios). He said treatment at Bolton Therapy Centre was in a totally different class to the rest.

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So, there you go. That's Karen Willcock, a small snippet into an intriguing person who runs an excellent business.