TRIBUTES have been paid to a pub landlady who died after a brave battle with cancer aged just 30.

Annie Davidson

TRIBUTES have been paid to a pub landlady who died after a brave battle with cancer aged just 30.

Trish Barn ran the Victoria Inn in North Station Road, Colchester, for 11 years with her mother and fellow landlady, Julie Hicks.

The pair moved to the town from Spalding in Lincolnshire to take over running the pub which Miss Barn “absolutely loved”, her grieving mother said.

Miss Barn never had a day's illness until August last year when she became unwell and was eventually diagnosed with cervical cancer in January.

Miss Hicks said her daughter never lost her positive attitude and was determined to beat the illness and go on a dream trip to New York.

She said: “Trish had chemotherapy and radiotherapy at Essex County Hospital and walked up there five days a week for the treatment.

“When she finished it though, she took a turn for the worse and they told her she only had a few months to live unless she had more chemotherapy which would give her one or two years.

“But she took a turn for the worse and was taken into hospital where she was sedated for nearly a week and then she died.”

Miss Hicks said the speed of her daughter's decline had shocked them but doctors believed she may have had cancer in her body already and that the cervical tumour was a secondary one.

She died on July 31 and it was standing room only at her funeral at Colchester Crematorium on August 12.

“Trish was very, very positive and always focused on getting better,” said Miss Hicks. “She was planning a trip to New York with a friend of hers from Canada when she recovered.

“She loved her job - she absolutely loved the pub, and she was really into shopping, I think clothes were her hobby!”

Miss Hicks added that Miss Barn really enjoyed travelling and drum and bass music.

Donations in her memory were made at her funeral and a cheque for £500 will be presented to Essex County Hospital in the near future.

Since May, the Victoria Inn's cellar has been flooded three times, including on the day of Miss Barn's death and the day of her funeral with all the stock and equipment being lost on each occasion.

Miss Hicks said she was taking things one day at a time and focusing on getting the pub properly up and running again.

“It is what Trish would have wanted and it is something to keep me busy and not let me have too much time to think,” she added.

Miss Barn and Miss Hicks hit the headlines several years ago when their Staffordshire bull terrier Rizla began playing pool on the pub's pool table.

Rizla, who was featured in national newspapers, died of cancer three years ago and has since been replaced by Arri who is as popular as his predecessor amongst the pub's regulars.