A Felixstowe family is this weekend celebrating 10 years running a pub which it had feared might close.

When landlady Frances Flynn lost her husband Pete, 49, to cancer three years ago, she and her regulars thought the Falcon might also be lost.

She was worried whether she would be able to cope on her own in an increasingly difficult business environment.

Mrs Flynn said: “When I lost Pete I was devastated.

“We had been together 25 years and he was the other part of me and I completely lost something of myself when he died. It was a very emotional time and a real struggle.

“If it hadn’t been for the staff here at the Falcon and my family, who were all fantastic and stood by me and helped out and worked hard, I think the pub would have folded at that time.

“Now we are celebrating 10 years and I cannot believe it.

“I am so proud.

“With pubs closing every week – and others changing hands because people cannot make a go of them – I think it is a real achievement today to have reached this milestone.

“It is hard because it is no longer an easy business to be in, but we plod on and plod on.” Mrs Flynn, 49, has members of her family who love to support and help out at the pub, including daughter Kayleigh, 25, and Spence, husband of eldest daughter Morgan, 27, who plays in the pub’s regular band Mohawk,

The Falcon Inn in Walton High Street, Felixstowe, is a traditional drinking pub with no food, supported by people throughout the town, especially many Waltonians as their local.

Mrs Flynn said: “The support from the regulars is brilliant and I hope there will be lots of them with us to celebrate the 10 years.

“We keep the pub traditional to be different and give people choice.”

On Sunday, the pub will be staging its 10-year celebration with events starting at 1pm with a bouncy castle for the children, hot potatoes, lots of games and karaoke, and then in the evening, from 7pm to 9.30pm, Mohawk will be playing.