AFTER nearly 30 years of trading, a Kidlington shop will be closing down because the stress of running it proved too much.

J & Sons opened in Oxford Road in 1983 as a food store, before expanding into automotive parts.

But after suffering a heart attack in July, Arif Jan, 39, was advised by doctors to relax as much as possible.

He offered his elder brother Jabid Mohammed, who runs the store with him, the opportunity to take sole control, but he declined.

Mr Jan, who lives in Oxford Road, said: “When you get into that position of having a cardiac arrest, the first thought that comes to your mind is of your wife and children.

“When I was in hospital for five days I was thinking about how to tell my brother I would have to leave the shop.”

The brothers took over the store from their father Jan Mohammed in 2005 and didn’t feel they could pass it on to someone else.

Mr Jan has suffered a number of angina attacks which his doctors attribute to stress. He said: “One person couldn’t look after the shop on their own. It is too much.

“We would need a fully experienced person to run it and we would have to train someone up.

“The only answer was to give up the store. It is the best way to go ahead.

“It is the end of an era, but we didn’t want it to happen like this.”

Mr Jan, who has been working at J & Sons since 1989, has not decided what he will do after the shop has closed.

He could not confirm when the store would be closing down, but a sale is currently taking place. The shop is set to continue to operate as a food store..

Chairman of Kidlington Village Centre Management Board Chris Pack said: “It is a shame to see the shop go. It served a very good purpose over the years.

“They are a long-established family in Kidlington and I hope it will continue to be a shop.”