'I don't want to live in fear any more': This little Post Office was inspirational - armed robbers have forced it to close

Rama Blaggan arrived in Manchester in 1993 with nothing. She worked hard, saved some money and bought a shop - Sonia's Newsagents on Oldham Road in Miles Platting. And for the last 20 years, while the area around it altered dramatically, Rama has been a constant presence.

But now that's about to change. Rama, 51, is retiring. She doesn't want to, but after two terrifying armed robberies in recent months, she says for the first time in her life she's scared of going into work.

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She said: "Before I would open the shop up at 6am every day on my own, I would work late at night on my own and I never felt fear. Now when I open up I'm looking up and down the street making sure there's no one outside. I'm scared."

In November Rama was threatened with a knife by a man who followed her into the store. Thankfully she wasn't harmed. The man spotted her dog - a German Shepherd called Bunty - behind the counter and after she set off an intruder alarm he fled empty-handed.

Rama said: "I didn't scream, I didn't shout. I just walked backwards. He said 'give me money'. Then he saw my dog and I knew he wasn't going to do anything. He ran away. It was proper, proper scary."

Later that month her husband Jadge, 49, wasn't quite so lucky. He was punched in the face by two masked men as he was stacking shelves. They left him in a pool of blood on the shop floor as they ran off with an empty till.

Rama said: "They had something heavy in the glove when they hit him. There were cuts all over his face. There was blood all over the floor. There was no money in the till - they took the wrong one.

"It's really