WHEN Chris Thomasson is not helping people with their health problems she is cheering them up with the range of chocolates she and her partner create together.

Chris, a 54 year-old nurse working three days a week for BUPA 's patient support line, and her partner, Chris Dale, aged 46, started Rivington Chocolates last November from their Horwich home.

She said: "We'd wanted to have a business ourselves for a long time but weren't sure what."

Two years ago, however, Chris bought her a gift of a day course at well-known chocolatiers Slattery's in Bury New Road, Whitefield.

"I really enjoyed it," she added. When they both went on a Barclay's business workshop, they thought about chocolate-making as a potential business, an idea clinched by a further two-day course at Slattery's.

Having got all the right environmental health checks and bought equipment like a chocolate tempering machine for melting chocolate to exactly the right temperature, the couple started making their wares and Rivington Chocolates was born.

They buy Belgian chocolate in calletts — button-like measurements — for their mostly filled individual chocolates and truffles.

They buy caramel and Champagne truffles but create the rest including special flavours like the one using chocolate and Bank Top Brewery's Gold Digger beer.

For truffles, they simply combine cream and chocolate with a little bit of glucose.

Other flavours they have invented include lemon curd truffle and they are currently working on a chilli truffle.

Their chocolates come in milk, white and dark and include flavours like praline and passion fruit which are made in moulds at around 30 a time in a couple of hours.

They also make fresh honeycomb, twice dipped in chocolate, which is proving very popular at outlets like The Cowshed in Horwich.

They sell mostly by word of mouth and by the internet — and the firm has a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

They can create bespoke chocolates with individual names on are always happy to make up a selection of specific chocolates.

They are currently using Chris's two days off and their weekends together to fulfil orders and experiment with new and delicious ideas.

Long term, they would like to become full-time chocolatiers but are happy currently doing this work in their spare time — which makes for a busy but very sweet life.