Just two weeks before opening her latest coffee shop venture in Carmarthen town centre, the Welsh Apprentice winner Alana Spencer has had to abandon her plans as she recovers from the agonising recovery of sustaining four cracked ribs.

The baker and entrepreneur, who won the twelfth series of BBC One’s The Apprentice in 2016, has since opened a number of seafront coffee shops including outlets in Aberystwyth, Llandudno and Caernarfon.

But just as she was preparing for the countdown to opening her latest chocolate and cake outlet in St Catherine’s Walk, Carmarthen on June 17, Alana fell eight feet from a ladder and fractured her ribs.

“I like to get stuck into a job and I don’t really stop until the job's done,” she says.

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“So when I was trying to decorate the upstairs seating area of the new cafe, I totally lost balance. I fell off the ladder and ended up cracking four of my ribs. And when the paramedics took me to hospital they tried to get me to walk but I just couldn’t.  The pain was pretty intense.”

But Alana is confident that despite her agonising setback, the Carmarthen store will soon be back on schedule.

“All my other cafes are seaside venues and this was why I chose Carmarthen," she explained.

"It’s going to be an all-year round high street store with a menu so suit the customers. I’ve decided that it's going to be more of a chain coffee shop where people can have a grab-and-go, with all the products being wrapped on the counter.

“Nothing has set me back up to now in my career, and I’m determined that despite the broken ribs, everything will be done to ensure that the Carmarthen outlet is up and running very shortly.”

Thirty year old Alana is a native of Aberystwyth and was the first Welsh winner to stem from the BBC Apprentice series. She received a £250,000 investment from Lord Alan Sugar following her appearance on the show, to set up her luxury cake and chocolate busines that she's named Ridiculously Rich. Her early years were spent in Loughborough before her family moved to Llanrhystud in Ceredigion.  She was a pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Aberaeron where, at the age of 16, she took her very first chocolate order for one of her teachers.