A mum who experienced loneliness after moving away from her family in Merseyside used experience to start new business venture.
Michelle Harley, 41, a former pupil of Maricourt High School in Maghull moved to Surrey four years ago when husband, Jon, started a new job.
The new job meant the couple, who have three children - Ava, Jonny and Lili - would have to move away from friends and family, which Michelle said she found incredibly difficult.
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Michelle told the ECHO : "It was so hard, it was really tough. Because you know how family orientated everyone is in Liverpool, and there's a real sense of community.
"I think when you come down to London people move here for work so there's not as much of a community spirit.
"People tend to keep themselves to themselves, not because they're not nice or friendly, it's just that's the way it is down here - it's so different and I did really struggle.
"I'm really close to my family and they weren't here and I didn't know anyone.
"My kids were a little bit older, and when your children are little you get invited to all the parties and things like that and slowly it dwindles off as they get older.
"There wasn't as many mums that I knew and it was just tough. My husband was working full time so he wasn't around as much, so I was literally here dropping the kids off at school, cleaning, picking them up and that was that."
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Michelle, who worked in the beauty industry in Liverpool, knew she wanted to get a job but found the cost of opening her own salon down south too expensive.
She started working as a PA for an American family, but they eventually relocated to Utah and Michelle helped organise their move back to the US.
Michelle said: "It just made me think there's something in this. I'd moved quite a few times before and I did see there was a huge need, particularly down here for people who haven't got friends and family around, just someone who is going to come in and help them - almost like a bit of a motherly figure or a really good friend."
Michelle started offering the home relocation service to other clients and soon found she was unable to cope with the demand.
She said: "A lot of my friends were saying we need something too. A lot of women over 40 wanted to go back to the work place but had been out of it for so long raising it children but we have quite a lot to offer.
"And from there it just snowballed - we set the company up."
Explaining how their home relocation business - Abode bespoke home - works, Michelle said: "We've got really great relationships with removal companies. We liaise with them, get people quotes, we can arrange for tenancy cleans and decluttering, we can do all types of concierge services.
"But it's the unpacking services probably that's our main thing and a lot of the removal companies use us for that as well.
"We only recruit more mature women, mainly because we want people who have reared children and run a house themselves and moved house several times.
"We want women that have got that life experience that aren't going to be flustered, and who have had to set up a kitchen before.
"As you know there's no point in putting your tea and coffee miles away from your mugs or pots and pans where you can't reach them. People who know how to unpack a kitchen and a house in an intelligent way."
Despite starting the business in February last year, Michelle said the pandemic surprisingly gave her company a boost rather than destroying it before it got off the ground.
She said: "One thing it did make us realise for a lot of people, the family couldn't come and help them because they weren't allowed to.
"Also, everyone was trying to get out of London because they didn't want to be in the city for the second lockdown.
"It just went absolutely nuts, we went from zero to a hundred overnight because of Covid."
Despite still missing her home city, particularly the people, Michelle and her family have now made a home in Surrey.
And together with her business partner, Debra Gilbert, they have been announced as finalists in the Best Women in Business Awards.
Michelle added: "I am so thrilled I just want to shout it from the rooftops. I want everyone to know that its never too late to start something new and with a bit of drive and determination then anything is possible."
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