Gosport pubs: The Eagle is taken over by woman who has recently finished cancer treatment and her husband

Jeanette Thomas, 45, was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer and she has been undergoing chemotherapy since – but she has now been given the all-clear and has decided to take over a pub.

The mum of five who lives in Gosport has taken over The Eagle in Elmhurst Road with her husband and they became the official landlady and landlord of the venue last Tuesday.

Jeanette used to be in licensing when she was younger and it was when her son and his friends took over The White Horse that she began toying with the idea of taking over a pub.

She enquired about The Eagle and within 10 days, she and her husband had the keys and were the proud managers of the popular site.

She said: ‘I have got the all-clear – I still get tired quite a lot but not as tired as I was when I was having the treatment – they said it could take up to six months to recover from the treatment.

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‘I am happy that it is all over but I am just raring to go now. Now it is all gone, I just want to get on with life so I am feeling good about it all.

‘This came up and it’s just round the corner from us so we enquired and next thing we know 10 days later we were in here. The funny thing is I finished my treatment the day before we took over.’

The couple are going to be making changes following some of the requests from the local customers and these changes will include putting a dart board back up and getting new televisions.

They are also looking to reopen the kitchen as a permanent fixture once they have made some adjustments and ensured that everything is up to standard.

She added: ‘We are opening the same hours as they had before and we have kept all of the same staff because they have got a good reputation with the locals.

‘We have got to get the kitchen back up and running.’

They hosted a barbecue over the weekend to show their customers that they are dedicated to reopening the kitchen.