How cosmopolitan our wonderful town of Kendal is, to have a UK Skin Clinic open here on its doorstep.

How smug did I feel last month, simply popping round the corner to sort out my skin, rather than going all the way to Harley Street - as a dear friend in Devon is having to do.

I have held back on joining the Botox brigade, I have considered, then reconsidered a face lift, but there's no getting away from the fact that, with every year, new signs of age appear on my most visible parts - totally giving the game away.

On my face there are the broken veins around the nose and cheeks. And on the back of my hands, the brown spots (call them what you will - age spots, sun spots, liver spots) remind me of my grandmother's hands as I stare at them while driving.

Every morning out comes the concealer, dabbing away to try to cover the ever increasing number of new marks' on my face.

It's good to know I am not alone - I'd say 80 per cent of the women I speak to have some blemishes on their bodies that they constantly keep hidden behind make-up or clothes.

Watching reality make-over programmes such as Ten Years Younger doesn't inspire me to rush out and have a full chemical peel either - the top layer of skin burnt off followed by days of peeling like a new potato in front of the mirror.

I don't want to appear so vain that a few age-marks being removed will change my life, but I do believe that to look better is to feel better, and it's not how you actually look, it's how you feel you look, that counts.

I asked owner Richard Sharp, some questions about the UK Skin Clinic, and how he came to open it here in Kendal.

  • UK Skin Clinic, Allhallows Lane, Kendal, tel 01539-732040, and www.ukskinclinics.com.
  • To find out what Richard said, and what is available at the clinic, see the Leisure section of this week's Westmorland Gazette.