Chocs away for ex-RAF nurse (From Wiltshire Times)

Chocs away for ex-RAF nurse

3:36pm Monday 14th January 2013 in Chippenham

Former RAF nurse Faye Campbell is pursuing her dream of making chocolate for a living and has opened a shop in Chippenham.

Mrs Campbell, 33, has always loved chocolate and her nickname when she was in the military was Willy Wonka.

Almost four years ago she and her friends went on a chocolate making course and she knew then that was what she wanted to do.

She started making chocolate for friends and family, had market stalls at Christmas and supplied a sweet shop in Calne.

But she couldn’t make the break from nursing until she came back from a five-month stint in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

She said: “I thought there has got to be more to life than this.

“These young soldiers are being severely injured and dying. If they could give us one piece of advice it would probably be to live life to the full.”

Mrs Campbell, of Calne, resigned from the military in October 2010 after 12 years and went on professional courses, including business start-up seminars.

She did try to combine chocolate making with a part-time nursing job but realised it was not possible, so left nursing completely in November 2011 and opened her shop, ChocolateFrost, in Timber Street, Chippenham, a year later. The shop was previously Meehans Cakery.

In between, she had rented a unit at the craft village in Wroughton, near to Junction 16 of the M4, which had been a success.

Mrs Campbell often works 20 hours a day. She gets up at 4 or 5am and makes chocolate for two or three hours. When she gets home in the evening she makes chocolate again, followed by an hour’s paperwork.

She is having a kitchen installed at her shop which will enable her to make chocolate on the premises.

She said: “This is the hardest job I have ever done but I’m really enjoying it. It feels like me. I didn’t want an easier life, I wanted a simpler life.”

She sells hand-made chocolates and cakes, most of which are made by her, gifts, and cards, and there are tables inside for people to drink hot chocolate, coffee or tea.

Some of her products are stocked in other outlets, including the village shop in Kington St Michael, the Peppermill in Devizes and Food Gallery in Marlborough. She has a Facebook page and is on Twitter.