ONE of Chepstow’s newest businesses has used a slightly unusual means to help open its doors.

Chepstow resident Cherry Mills, successfully crowdfunded £2100 to help open Cherished Earth, a wholefood retailer in Riflemans Way.

The store caters for vegetarians, those eating gluten-free, eating clean or raw, those on a health kick, vegan or paleo diets.

Cherry Mills said: “I’ve been here for a while and I have to travel a good distance for all my high grade dietary requirements so I decided to go ahead and open up on my own and see how we go.

“I visited Chepstow one day by accident and everyone was so incredibly helpful and kind I moved here. I want to give something back and be a real part of the community, this is my way of doing that!”

The response she received for the crowdfunding and since opening has been encouraging.

She said: “I’ve been really taken aback by the response. I set what we thought was quite a high target and what I needed to make sure we could trade for a few months and see how we go and we hit the target in two weeks.

“Everyone has been so supportive, first we had friends and family donating and then people we didn’t even know. People have been saying thank you for opening, it’s been something that has been lacking in Chepstow.”

The store opened on 8th October and while its still finding its feet, its working with customers to find out what demand there is.

Cherry Mills said: “Right now we’re just trying to get up and running, making sure we are stocking what our customers want. We set up a blackboard for suggestions and that seems to be popular.”