Ealing Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We profile some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'UP CLOSE in Ealing.'

Today we caught up with Virginia (Vee) Lee, the woman behind Venus Yoga & Mala.

Vee Lee started practising yoga seven years ago and instantly became hooked and wanted to learn more.

She described herself as the school pupil who would ask the teacher all the questions during a lesson and would then stay after class for after school tutoring.

She was so interested in learning more that she started a teaching course in 2016 in order to become a qualified instructor and teach others.

When she graduated a year later in 2017, she had completed 200 hours of yoga training, the first level of training, and has recently also completed her 300-hour advanced teacher training course.

For the past four years, she's been teaching yoga classes at the William Hobbayne Centre in Hanwell.

She told Ealing Nub News: "When I became a yoga instructor it was important for me to teach locally in the community, I wanted to offer my services to my neighbours.

"It's such an awesome feeling to help those within your community."

Unfortunately, as with most things around the world, that all came to a sudden halt last year with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

That's when Vee switched her classes to online and tried to make the most of a difficult situation.

She said: "I originally worried that teaching on Zoom would be weird but I knew I had to keep the classes going no matter what.

"For many of my students, yoga is a support network for them, an anchor in their everyday lives.

"A good thing about online teaching is that everyone is in their private space and doesn't have to worry about how they look or comparing themselves to others."

Classes have recently returned back to normal and are taking place in person, but with a maximum of only eight people allowed per class.

Vee added: "It's still not exactly how I'd want it to be, as I've had to reduce the number of people allowed in the class, but I've created this hybrid class where people can also take part online.

"So I've got people taking part in person, while others are joining in online and there isn't a limit to how many people can join in online.

"I've even got my best friend joining in from Cape Town – she started taking part during lockdown and has continued via Zoom, while the in-person class is taking place.

Vee teaches people of all abilities, from beginners to those with decades of experience.

"One of the women who comes to my class has been practising yoga for over 20 years, it's quite humbling really that she chooses to come to my class," she said.

Vee holds two different types of yoga classes – restorative yoga on Mondays at 8pm and dynamic yoga on Saturdays at 12pm.

You can bulk buy six classes for £60, or just one class for £12.

To find out more, email Vee on [email protected].