Maldon Nub News aims to be supportive to EVERY element of the community from business and shops to people and charities and clubs and sports organisations.

Everyone is finding it tough at the moment and wants life to get back to normal.

We will be profiling some of these local businesses and groups regularly over coming weeks in a feature called UP CLOSE IN MALDON in the hope that we can be a supportive springboard for your full return to business as usual.

This week we talk to Lisa Sanders, owner of LA Nails in Quest Place, Maldon. During an in-depth Q and A session Lisa reveals why she set up business in Maldon as well as what she loves about the town's community and her gratitude for its support during the current crisis.

There is a moment in her interview with Maldon Nub News where Lisa Sander's love for Maldon shines through most clearly: it comes when she speaks of her late mum, Edna Andrews.

"Mum moved to Maldon for the last 10 years of her life," Lisa says, "and she thought it was the best place she ever lived. She loved it here, she really did."

Edna's decision to move to the town came when Lisa, now 52, moved her nail bar business to Maldon 17 years ago.

LA Nails had originally been based in Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, after Lisa travelled to the USA at the tender age of 19 to learn her nail skills there. When she returned to the UK 33 years ago she set up her own shop and was probably the first nail bar in Essex to offer acrylic nails.

"It really took off," Lisa says, "as it was such a new thing back then."

In time, she moved to a shop in Chelmsford High Street, but Lisa had always loved Maldon when visiting with her mum on days out and so when the opportunity to buy a shop with living accommodation in the town came up, she took it.

"Mum said she would move to the town if I did and so she bought a house here, too," Lisa smiles, "and she thought it was the best decision she ever made."

However, for Lisa and her family, the shop and attached home arrangement quite quickly proved too small.

First, she moved to a shop in Edward Bright Close and then, 11 years ago now, she finally settled at the current LA Nails salon in Quest Place, off the High Street. She loves the quaint surroundings of the little shopping area and has found the community of traders there hugely supportive.

"We all get on so well," she says, "and we do everything we can to help each other."

Never before has that been so necessary as in 2020, the year when the pandemic struck. Lisa tells how the loyalty of her customers and the spirit of the local community of traders has kept her going.

Lisa says: "I have customers who have been coming to me for 30 years and many others who have been regulars for a long time. They know they can trust us as we have put everything in place to protect them at the salon, so we've been doing fine. Maldon has a great community and people have been amazing."

Yet she tells of her frustration when the re-opening of nail bars took so long, despite all the Covid-safety precautions she worked so hard on. It was with a sense of relief that she was able to start working again in the salon and bring employees Sharon, Michael, Mackenzie and Sue back to work – with some of them having worked with her for 17 years.

Now, though, Lisa is looking to the future and like so many, waiting hopefully for an eventual end to the pandemic.

"It has always been such a social place at LA Nails," she says, "and I can't wait for the day when we can all be in there together and it feels just as social as it did before.

"And I know that day will come."

• LA Nails is to take part in Maldon's Totally Locally Fiver Fest, running from Saturday, 10 October to Saturday, 24 October. Lisa's offer is for a 15-minute hand massage for just £5.