Beanz meanz... Queen's '¨landlady is turning orange

Landlady Marilyn Forster is preparing to wallow in a bath of baked beans for charity

Marilyn Forster has been at the helm of the historic pub, in High Street, Titchfield, for 10 years.

And to mark the milestone she will spend two hours in a bath filled with baked beans for charity tomorrow night.

Marilyn, 60, hit upon the idea when she decided to raise money for Charlie’s Beach Hut, a Stubbington charity which sends families of children who are seriously ill on holiday to Cornwall.

‘It is a charity close to our hearts’, said Marilyn.

‘We have raised around £2,000 for them in the past and I wanted to do something a bit different.

‘I spend more time in the kitchen cooking than I do behind the bar, so it had to be something that involved food.

‘I know I’m going to go a very funny shade of orange. And I think I’ll need a couple of gins to get me through it.’

The fun starts at 8pm on Friday night and regulars have already pledged £800 to see Marilyn take the plunge.

She said: ‘We have the very best customers. They are so generous.

‘Charlie’s Beach Hut is a special charity and they really dig deep for it.

‘My daughter-in-law did a 24-hour sponsored silence for them last year. I couldn’t have done that.

‘But this was something different that I knew I could do.

‘I’m just a bit worried about getting all the baked beans out of every nook and cranny!’

The second-hand bath will be in the hallway, and filled with 29 catering-sized tins of beans, donated by cash and carry firms Batleys and Macro.

Enterprise Inns has donated a barrel of beer to raffle.

To sponsor Marilyn, pop into the pub or go to the charity’s website, charliecodling.co.uk.

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