Pair making a difference since lockdown day one
‘MAINSTAYS OF COMMUNITY’
OWNERS of a newsagent’s and deli have been praised by their community for their support during the pandemic.
Pratik and Bee Master, who own Wigston Fields News and Deli, have gone “above and beyond”, customers say.
During the first lockdown, the pair were sometimes visiting wholesalers six times a day to stock up on essentials.
For their most vulnerable customers, the Masters hired a van to make deliveries.
The Mercury has teamed up with Amazon to celebrate Covid Heroes.
We asked you to nominate the organisations and people that have stepped in to help when we needed them most.
You nominated Pratik and Bee as two of the many heroes in Leicesterhshire.
Pratik said: “If what it takes is that specific item to make someone happy then that’s easy for us to do.
“We accepted the situation we were in and just put one foot in front of the other and kept going.”
He and his wife were praised for being “the mainstay of their community since day one of the first lockdown” by one nominee.
Another said: “They have gone above and beyond, with live broadcasts via Facebook, asking for cash and carry requests and so much more.”
Pratik and Bee took over the business from their father after he retired last year. They have transformed the corner shop into a delicatessen selling locally-produced food and drinks.
Pratik said: “We were just getting by like everyone else was.
“It’s very humbling to have been nominated. It’s nice to be needed in that way and we knew it was a time that we needed to be there for each other.”
See the panel, right, for how you can nominate a Covid Hero.