Health is wealth, students tell Euro judges

Three students at the Buxton campus of the University of Derby are to face a Dragon’s Den style panel of experts in a competition to find the most daring young entrepreneurs in Europe.

Their team, called Hotspa Derby, has won the chance to present their new brand for a healthy living programme to leaders of the European hotel industry at Maastricht after a highly competitive elimination process.

This is the first year that the University has competed in the contest, the European Mise en Place Cup (EMCup), to find the International Hotel Management students who “dare to stand out from the crowd through entrepreneurship and commitment”.

Hospitality Management student Andy Heyes, Hospitality Management and Culinary Arts student Wiktor Witan, and Spa Management student Lelia Fiastru, have joined forces to present their ideas on the competition’s theme of Wellness and Wealth.

Using the slogan “The Greatest Wealth is Health”, Andy, Wiktor and Lelia will outline their ideas on the little investments in time which boost wellbeing – and could even extend your life.

Andy said: "The small things in life can make the biggest difference."

Andy will be giving tips ranging from how to take time out from stressful situations to avoiding sleep deprivation.

He added: "We are all very proud to represent the University and hope we can bring lots of fun, energetic and enthusiastic ideas to the competition."

But the team needs help in the run-up to the competition on February 8 and 9. Part of the competition involves building up social media support and HotSpa Derby needs 1,500 Facebook likes, 500 twitter followers and 500 YouTube video views.

To boost their campaign, they brought The Dome to a halt with a flash mob dance to the sound of Pharrell Williams’ 'Happy.'