Olympic bronze medallist Emily Ford visited a Congleton beauty business in preparation for an appearance on the BBC ’s One Show on Friday evening. Emily, 29, brought home bronze in the Women’s Eight rowing competition in Paris. Emily, from Holmes Chapel, is sister to Olympic gold medalist Tom Ford, 31, who was part of the team that won the men’s Eight.
Congleton beautician Kirsty Howard, 38, invited Emily to her home-based salon, Kirsty H Beauty Academy, after discovering Emily lived just minutes down the road. “She agreed and told us she is going on the One Show on Friday, and that it would be really nice to have it done in readiness for that," said Kirsty, formerly a British Gas engineer for ten years, adding: “I asked her everything about the Olympics. I didn’t know I’d feel this way, but about half an hour before she arrived, I started to feel a bit starstruck.
” She and business partner Louise Butler, 40, who runs Louise Butler Beauty Academy in Kidsgrove, prepared Emily’s brows and eyelashes for the TV appearance. The pair, originally from Kent, say they have been best friends for 18 years. Mum-of-two Kirsty described feeling “like a proud mother” over Emily during the appointment.
“I was rooting for her,” said Kirsty. “She’s so lovely and humble, down to earth. Emily was decked out in her Team GB kit for the appointment and wore her medal for the photograph.
Kirsty said: “I told her that if I’d won a bronze medal I’d never take it off.