FORMER landlady of the Sun Inn in Marlborough Sarah Jackson has died after losing her battle with cancer.

Mrs Jackson, nee Lind, was born in Redhill Hospital, Middlesex in 1947.

As an infant she travelled by plane with her mother, Elsa, to New York where her Norwegian father, Eric, was to meet her for the first time.

The family travelled to Central America to live on a remote coffee plantation in Guatemala where she and her sister, Maria, had the freedom to run and play with local Guatemalans and speak in Spanish as their first language.

When she was nine she started at boarding school, at Godstowe, in High Wycombe.

Mrs Jackson lived in Australia twice, first with her mother and stepfather ‘Doc’ Rylance, and then in 1970, with her husband-to-be Patrick, where they soon married and began their own family life.

In 1995 the couple moved to Marlborough with their youngest daughter Victoria, while their oldest daughter, Olivia, embarked on her own travels.

She set up the flower shop, Primrose Lane, on the High Street soon after her arrival in Marlborough.

Mrs Jackson also did a great deal of voluntary work, often helping in the kitchen of the Jubilee Centre.

The couple’s last assignment together was running The Sun Inn which they took over in 2010.

In December 2012 Mr Jackson lost his battle with cancer and in early 2013 Mrs Jackson sold the pub and visited Olivia, her husband Tom and their children Islay, Charlie and Rosie in Hobart in Australia.

Shortly after moving she underwent surgery for a brain tumour. Recovering sufficiently to travel, she returned to England in October 2013 and settled in a cottage in a seaside suburb of Deal.

The middle of 2014 saw indications of a return of the tumour and Mrs Jackson chose to return to Hobart for treatment but died on January 19.

Friends and neighbours of Mrs Jackson are invited to planting a flowering tree in Marlborough.

To be involved donations can be left at either David Dudley Jewellers or the Jubilee Centre.

Donations should be put in an envelope marked 'In memory of Sarah Jackson'.

Any excess funds we will split between the Jubilee Centre and Prospect Hospice at Savernake.