A VERWOOD woman said she has had an “unprecedented amount of cancellations” at her beauty salon since the coronavirus outbreak and her family has been affected “at all ends”.

Amanda Baverstock, 48, of Hillside Road, runs a waxing Salon in Wimborne Road, Moordown, called Ducky Fuzz but has seen most of her customers cancel appointments.

On top of that, Mrs Baverstock’s husband, Ian, 47, has been let go from his job working in maintenance at the Royal Bath Hotel and her two children, Jennifer and Adam Williams, 18 and 15, were preparing to sit their exams at school.

Mrs Baverstock said: “I started a business up nearly five years ago. We are a little bit different to other beauty salons which has stood us in good stead.

“We have seen a huge amount of cancellations. It’s been an unprecedented amount.

“It’s a repetitive business, clients come in every four or five weeks.

“I have two employees, I have told them I have enough for the payroll for this month and April.”

Mrs Bavistock said she is keeping her doors open for as long as possible and has changed her opening hours to 9am until 9pm, seven days a week.

This is to make sure there is only one employee in the shop at one time so keep up with social distancing.

“From my point of view, my two main concerns are paying my staff because they are young girls, and thinking about the rent.”

Chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak announced on Tuesday that businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 would be given grants of up to £25,000 as well as a business rates holiday.

These will be provided through local authorities, so for Mrs Bavistock, through BCP Council.

A spokesperson for BCP Council said: “It is important to note that BCP Council is awaiting further guidance on the award mechanism of this financial support from Central Government.

“As soon as this information is known, we will inform on our @Business_BCP Twitter feed, the @BCPCouncil Twitter feed and on our website. At this time businesses do not need to take any further action”

On Thursday, Mrs Bavistock said her husband went into work at the Royal Bath Hotel and was told they were letting him go.

“For the last 23 months he has worked at the Royal Bath Hotel. We understand that this was potentially going to happen,” she added.

“We’ve been affected at every end”

To make matters worse, Mrs Bavistock’s children, Jennifer who attends Brockenhurst college, and Adam who goes to Queen Elizabeth’s school, were about to sit their A-levels and GCSEs respectively.

“They are still completing revision plans at home,” she continued.

“But my worry is if they are not taking exams, how will we know how they have done.

“In the big scheme of things we are not too bad. My husband has skills, my business will pick up again.

“I am aware there are people worse off. People who started with nothing and now have less than nothing.

“I have not got it that badly.”