{"id":45770,"date":"2020-12-01T13:49:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T13:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=45770"},"modified":"2020-12-01T15:24:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T15:24:18","slug":"meet-the-friends-who-opened-a-dental-practice-two-weeks-before-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/12\/01\/meet-the-friends-who-opened-a-dental-practice-two-weeks-before-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the friends who opened a dental practice two weeks before lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friends, family and local people help Cardiff University graduates grow their business despite Covid pandemic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

WHEN lockdown started in March 2020, many small businesses were scared to lose what they had spent so long building. But what happens when you haven\u2019t even built anything yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the reality that Nitin Duggal and Chris Truman faced this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair had recently bought a dental practice together and were hoping that 2020 would provide them with a successful business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris, who grew up in Neath with parents who worked as teachers, was leaning towards engineering, or medicine before his brother Marc, who had started a dentistry course, encouraged him to follow suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Cardiff University,<\/a> he found himself on the same course as his brother, just one year behind. A year later, his sister Angharad joined Chris in the year below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nitin, from Birmingham, thought he’d follow his family into business, before the thought of medicine and then dentistry crossed his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At university, Chris and Nitin became friends through organising social events for other students on their course and shared a house in 2009 when they graduated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"