Kay raises a glass to help celebrate 25 years at popular West Sussex country pub

Kay has proved to be a hugely popular figure with customers at the Royal Oak, Lagness, near Bognor Regis, in the quarter of a century she has worked there, having started with a few bar shifts and graduating to running the venue.

And she says she could never have imagined she would settle in to the role and go on to flourish in her career in the hospitality industry.

Kay remembers she did her first stint on a bleak Sunday with the view to helping out for a few weekends to help the new tenants at the time, Ken and Linda, as they settled in.

She added: "The timing coincided with me finishing sixth form so then resulted in me doing more shifts through the summer. Shortly after that I became full-time.

"Over the years I have gained valuable experience of working with the public as well as getting great knowledge of the hospitality industry. In the early years I was fortunate enough to obtain qualifications required in this sector. Including my own personal licence.

"On my first day I was extremely shy, nervous and didn't have a clue what I was doing. Though over the years that soon faded! My confidence was boosted in various roles resulting in an increase of my pride of my job. After 20 years it was time for new ownership, but feeling very settled I wanted to stay on with them.

"But unfortunately, this was just before Covid and that impacted things greatly but we found a way through all of it to come out the other side still smiling.

"I have had some lovely comments from people congratulating me and I am so grateful to everyone for the recognition. I will always be grateful for the many friends I've made long term, in the past and recently. Here's to a few more years yet!”