A Sheppey dad has been told he may only have 15 months to live after suffering from severe headaches.
Rick Smith started feeling unwell in February - now a CT scan has revealed a brain tumour. Friends and family have started fundraising in the hope he can have private treatment.
Also in today's podcast, a meeting's being held later to look at what can be done to rescue woodland near Ashford that's been targeted by illegal dumping.
Lorry-loads of rubbish has been left in Hoads Wood over a three year period. Hear from the Kent Wildlife Trust who are calling for action.
Yvette Cooper's been telling the KentOnline Podcast what she thinks a Labour government would mean for Medway.
The Shadow Home Secretary's been in the Towns to visit a mental health project in Gillingham and has been speaking to local democracy reporter Robert Boddy.
There's good news for Folkestone - it's been named the best place to live in the south east.
The Sunday Times guide is based on things like house prices, schools and air quality - as well as transport links, broadband speed and green spaces. We've been getting reaction from the town's Mayor.
This weekend marks exactly 25 years since the opening of Bluewater Shopping Centre.
A special ceremony is going to be held to celebrate the 93 employees who have been there since the very beginning - we've been speaking to one of them.
And, in sport, Gillingham will be hoping for their first win in four games when they host Grimsby Town this weekend.
The Gills lost 2-0 at AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday. We've been catching up with head coach Stephen Clemence.
All right, thanks so much for downloading today's podcast. Coming up, find out which part of Kent has been named the best place to live in the Southeast. Here from the Jillingham boss ahead of their next game, and we've got your what's on round up for the weekend. But first today, a Sheppy dad has been told he may only have 15 months to live after suffering from the next couple of weeks to live in the South East. He's been told he may only have 15 months to live after suffering from severe headaches. This is our most read story today, and Kate joins me now with more Kate incredibly sad, and it only started feeling unwell last month. Yes, that's right. Rick Smith started getting headaches in February and at first he thought it was a virus, but the 39 year old from minster then started to have to take time off work. His fiance encouraged him to see a GP. He was initially told to drink more water, but the he's still struggling in eye test on March 2nd. He was sent to hospital for a CT scan, which revealed a butterfly glioblastoma on the left side of his brain, and he's having more tests today. Yes, medics need to do a biopsy and then they can decide on treatment. However, his partner Katrina says any treatment they do will only prolong his life. As you can imagine, she says this is devastating news and it's rocked the family. Rick has three children and a stepson. He's also the main breadwinner. Friends and family have now started fundraising for private children and to pay for Rick's 40th birthday and the couple's wedding within three days. They've already raised more than 42,000 pounds. Kate, thank you ever so much and you can find a link to that fundraising page within the story today at Kenton line. Kenton line news. Other top stories and six people are still being questioned after the death of a man near Favisham on Wednesday night. Adam Pritchard died following a stabbing in Borton underbleen. The suspects who are all aged between 33 and 43 were detained as part of the murder investigation. A multimillionaire landlord from Maidstone has been accused of harassing counselors despite a high court injunction. It comes after a decade of harassment in which Fergus Wilson repeatedly instructed counselors to kill themselves and sent huge numbers of unsolicited letters and emails. He's been taken back to court by bosses in Ashford who say he's not stopped. A judgment is due next month. Two men have been jailed after being caught in Dover trying to smuggle a number of people, including a six year old boy out of the UK. The pair, one of which lives in Bromley, were found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration by trying to hide the Algerian and Moroccan nationals in a lorry on its way to France. They've been given a combined sentence of more than 11 years. A dumb bridge biker who collided with a pedestrian as he sped off from police in Tumbridge Wells has avoided jail. William Bernardo's motorbike was traveling at double the speed limit before the crash on Mount Pleasant Road, which left a woman with a fracture with a thigh bone. The 21 year old who lives in Priory Road received a two year suspended sentence. He's also been banned from driving for three years. Now a meeting being held later to look at what can be done to rescue Woodland near Ashford that's been targeted by illegal dumping. Lorry loads of rubbish has been left in Hoads Wood over a three year period. Well Ian Rickards is from the Kent Wildlife Trust. We're talking thousands of tons of waste. This is mountainous areas covering four acres in places. It's 10 metres high of dumped rubbish. And these are eight wheeler big trucks wheeling it in and out, in and out, dumping material going off, collecting more material, going in and dumping it off. And it's stuff that's been, it's not just, you know, we're not talking about mattresses and sofasier. This is processed stuff that's come from a waste tip. So it's gone through a waste area. It's been mashed up or whatever they do to it, gone into back to Lorry's, presumably supposed to be going to landfill. And instead, by avoiding paying very high landfill tax costs, they've been dumping it in the middle of this woodland site and this woodland site has become a, basically it's become a landfill site in the middle of a protected woodland. And can you just describe to our listeners what it's like to walk through Hoads Wood at the moment? It's pretty upsetting actually. So you've got a quite distinct line of where the rubbish is and where the rubbish isn't. When you get outside that line, it's a typical sort of beautiful Kent Woodlands. You've got bluebells coming through the leaf litter at the moment. You know, the trees, the birds are singing. And then suddenly you hit this wall, literal wall of dumped waste. The smell is quite something. It makes your eyes water. You've got hydrogen sulfide which has been released from all this tons and tons of material breaking down. You've got the stuff that's leaching into the water, there's water courses, there's ditches running all the way through the site as well. Which are yellow and scummy and stinking. It's it takes your breath away with how awful it is. It's it's yeah, it's quite something. It must be really upsetting for people who live in the area and people who go and visit the woods, but also really damaging for the wildlife as well. Yeah, so I mean, obviously there's no specific damage where it's been or the air has been sitting on, which is not a small area. But then everything that's coming from that is leaching into the soil, going into the water courses, affecting the soil and the vegetation around it. It's it's going to have massive ongoing repercussions for the whole area. And you mentioned there's the meeting tonight to try and sort of gather some ideas of what can be done about this. I mean, what are you hoping will come out of this? Because there are quite important authorities who are going to be there, you know, Environment Agency, Kent Police, MP Damian Green. I mean, what's your hope for this meeting? My hope is that there'll be some clean up exercise planned that it'll be removed and it will get back to the state it should have been in. I'm hoping there'll be plans and procedures put in place so that this sort of thing cannot happen again. I'm hoping that somebody's going to get prosecuted and that the full way the law is put on to on to the people that carry out this work. Kent Online reports. If a Cooper's been telling the Kent Online podcast what she thinks a Labour government would mean for Medway. The Shadow Home Secretary has been in the towns to visit a mental health project in Gillingham. She's urged Rishi Sunak to call a vote sooner rather than later claiming everything feels broken. But she's been speaking to a local democracy reporter, Robert Boddy. Welcome to Medway today. Well, Nashabakhan has invited me here to see this brilliant project, the Men in Cheds project here. And they're doing great work because it is working with the community. It's tackling loneliness. It's being really practical and positive. And it's also about preventing the kinds of crises, mental health crises that people can get into later on. There's doing some brilliant work here and involving as many people as possible. And what do you think the value of these sort of schemes are for people I'd say who may suffer with mental health or loneliness and that sort of thing? I think it's really important to have the prevention work in the community. And this is the kind of thing that can prevent people getting into all sorts of problems later on and also prevent the kinds of crises that end up having huge pressures and costs on our public services later on. And at a time when it really does feel like our public services are broken, the local services are being undermined. This is about communities coming together to prevent things going wrong as part of a long-term plan for the future. Obviously, we're an election year. So what would a Labour government mean for Medway and schemes like this? Well, I think the really important thing for Medway is to really get its future back. And that's why we want brilliant Labour MPs for the future, like Nashaba, and also why we want practical things. Getting neighbourhood police back on the beat here in Medway, making sure that we've got action to cut waiting lists and some of the real pressures on Medway Hospital that we've seen and also just a bit of stability for people so that we can tackle problems like the cost of living, get energy bills down. And I've been talking to people who just do some doorknobging, talking to local residents and things that came up. Actually, it was crime and antisocial behaviour and also cost of living and issues around hospital as well. A big issue around here was sort of the finances of Medway Council. And a big part of funding schemes like this is the revenue support grant, which has been cut over many, many years. Would the Labour government increase the revenue support grant? Well, we've seen real long term problems with the complete lack of growth under the Tories, 14 years, and the economy is just so weak as a result of their failures. And that has also meant we've seen these huge cutbacks in public services. It means we've seen the big hit to the cost of living as well. And that's why we've got to have a long term plan. So Labour's plan is for a long term plan for the economy. And that would also mean trying to give local councils long term stability in their finances as well. So that they can plan. And so we get the economy growing because that means we can then also put more money into public services. A war memorial and flowers in a village near Sittin Gorn have been crushed by lorries, navigating road closures. You can see pictures if you head to Kent online. The Tommy Soldier statue commemorating VE Day in Borden has been damaged five times since it was installed in 2020. The landlady of the Maypole Inn says she's gutted and is urging people to respect the tribute. Aldi's been told it can build a new store in Ashford. The budget chain's been given permission to develop a site off the 828 in the Kennington part of town, creating 50 jobs. It'll be the retailer's second shop in the town. We're told the other one on Victoria Road is often busy and congested. Now, there's great news today for Folkston. It's been named as the best place to live in the southeast. The Sunday Times Guide is based on things like house prices, schools and air quality, as well as transport links and broadband speeds and green spaces. While I've been getting reaction from Belinda Walker, who's the town's mayor? Well, I agree with them. I'm really glad I came to live here. Been it since the mid-90s. I came here for a job interview. I've never been to Folkston. Walked along the wonderful scene, but I thought, yeah, I did want to live, or I did want this job, and I haven't really looked back, been a reference. What do you think it is about Folkston that has so much charm? I must admit, it is one of my favourite places. Yeah, I love it. I mean, one thing, we've got a lot of natural beauty here. And I love the seaside. If you're a seaside person, you love Folkston. Yeah, you've got the coast, which is lovely. The Lower Lee's Coastal Park. You've got the harbor of now, which is fairly buzzing. You've got the old high street. You've got the precinct. Lots of different walks. It is a physically beautiful town. And at one end, you've got the flatness of the one we marsh. The other end, you've got the north downs. So, yes, it's a big variety of countryside. But, yeah, that's really the physical side of things around the town. It is beautiful. Lots to do here as well. And, of course, there's been an awful lot of investment in Folkston. Do you think that's made a positive impact? It's made a huge difference. I mean, sadly, we've seen the loss of a lot of things, like our part of Debonhams, Mars and Spencer's, Wilker, all gone as a way nationally. But the harbor arm and the old high street are really quite vibrant now. Not only that, but we've also got Appensangate Road and Booth Road West, which is mind of town. You've got a lot of new vibrant cafes, bars, music venues. The Grand Hotel has just started and the kettle's bars just reopened. The green room is a brilliant music venue. There's so much going on. The art scene, I think, is something that's mentioned quite a lot with Folkston. Obviously, we have the triennial and things like that, which really do shine a spotlight. Does it help when you have big international events like that as well? I think it does. I think people have come down for the triennial and see that the town is brilliant anyway. The trailer certainly brings a lot of people in. And we're also the world's first music town. So we've got a lot of music venues going on. All sorts, really, all sorts of different music. Right before I became mayor, I hadn't realised we have our own symphony orchestra here. And they are so good. They are fantastic. I've seen them so many times now. We've got a community swing band. We've got a wonderful call to society. Lots of stuff going on. Seven Oaks is the only other Kent town to make the list. Kent's online reports. The campaign's underway to save a riverside bar and restaurant in Sandwich after it was hit with noise complaints. Council bosses say they're looking into potential issues with the Keyside bar and grill. More than 650 customers and residents have signed a petition in support of the venue. Now, we're being encouraged to give Kent a bit of a spring clean over the next few weeks. Keep Britain tidy and launching their annual campaign to clear litter from our streets, parks and waterways. It's the ninth year it's taken place and runs until the end of the month. This weekend marks exactly 25 years since the opening of Kent's Blue Water Shopping Centre. A special ceremony is going to be held to celebrate the 93 employees who've been there since the very beginning. Among them is Amanda Harper, who works at John Lewis. She's been speaking to our reporter, Keeley. It's just such a lovely environment and it's lovely in the summer to be able to go and sit by the lakes and go and enjoy some outside space and peace and quiet. - I was there at the weekend and I was in the car park in John Lewis, actually, and somebody said to me, "Oh, how do I get in? "I've never been here before. "I couldn't believe it. "How could you have never been here?" - It's very strange that there are still people that have never been to Blue Water. And we certainly sort of changed, I think, after the pandemic where people didn't necessarily want to commute into London. So we're coming to visit Blue Water instead. So we have a lot of new, well, we have had a lot of new visitors in the last two or three years. - It's quite an iconic place to work, isn't it? - It is. And I love the fact that each of the malls has got a very different design. And that was one of the other things I can remember when we first started here, then all of our managers, we had a training session with Blue Water and they talked us through the architecture. And then we've got to have a guided tool wearing hard hats as the centre has still been built. But to see some of those things, so things like the roses and the petals, where they increase, as you're going through the rose gallery and the Thames Walk, where you see all of the Thames on the floor. And then we're located near the Guild Hall as well. So you can see all the professions, all up on the wall. So there's a lot of attention to detail. And it takes a long time. And even when you're walking around the centre, you still see things that you've not seen before and not noticed before. Even all the roses around the fanisters as you're walking along on the upstairs mall as you're in the rose gallery as well. There's lots of little elements of architecture that make it really special. - I never even noticed I'm going to be looking for that. So you were there literally before it was fitting. - That first day, I still remember the shutters going up at the front of the shop and customers kind of dashing in to come and see you, John Lewis, as we were the first ones in Kent, to come and see what we were all about. And we were, it was Easter time of year saying there were lots of, certainly working in gifts and gift food. There were lots of giant Easter eggs and it was all very different and all very new and shiny. And I think our department was the first department to sell something to a customer within about half a minute or a minute of opening. And you can see a series of special features on Blue Water on the website over the next few days. National highways have confirmed there'll be more closures on the A249 and M2 slip roads as work continues at the Stockbury Roundabout. This weekend from 8 p.m. today until 5 a.m. on Monday, there'll be a full closure of the Roundabout exit to the M2 Junction 5 London Belt. The closure will also be in place throughout next week. From 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. each night, full details can also be found on Kent Online. Congratulations to three fish and chips in Kent who've been named among the best in the UK, Newington Fish Bar and Ramsgate, Sandy's fish and chips in Folkston and catch in Ashford have made fry magazines top 50. They've been rated in categories like food, cleanliness and staff expertise. And now with a roundup of everything going on in Kent this weekend, here's Sam Laurie. - Now, I'm not going to do a bad accent, don't worry. But in case you didn't already know, this weekend is St. Patrick's Day. That's right, the Irish holiday is made its way to Kent where plenty of pubs are throwing a shamrock bash in honor of the day, which officially falls on Sunday. We've got a list of bars, pubs and venues that will all be celebrating St. Patty's Day this weekend with everything from baby Guinness shots to traditional Irish folk music up on what's on. So make sure you check it out to find out how to get involved. If you want to get some fresh air this weekend, you could always take a trip to Hever Castle right on the edge of the county and admire the dazzling daffodils. The annual display officially launches on Monday, but if you do visit over the weekend, you're sure to see some early blooms covering the grounds of the historic castle. This year, there are literally thousands of daffodils planted around the castle that make for a truly beautiful spring display. So it's definitely worth catching during the season, especially if you're a king gardener or want somewhere where the kids can run free while you take a relaxed stroll through the flowers. When it comes to the theatre, you know, we've always got some great shows in store for you and this weekend is no different. There's still time to see the hair-raising 222 of a ghost story starring the wanted Jamie Guinness at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley as it's running until Saturday night. Then the show will be making way for next week's production, Life of Pie. The spectacular play based on the best-selling novel and Oscar-winning film will be at the Churchill Theatre from Tuesday and is an absolute must-see for the life-size tiger puppet, if nothing else. So book your tickets now. And finally, for all the music fans out there, you can catch some top tribute shows this weekend. On Saturday, the Castoff Kinks, featuring original members of the '60s band, will be at the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tumbrid Wells. Ed Sheeran tribute, thinking out loud, will be at the Kings Hall in Han Bay. And Sarah Jane's dolly part and experience will be at Revelation Ashford, so there's lots to choose from. So enjoy your points of Guinness, soak up that springtime feeling, take a seat at an unforgettable show, and most importantly, have a fantastic weekend. Ken's online, sports. For Ball and Chillingham, we'll be hoping for their first win in four games when they host Grimsby Town this weekend, the Jill's Lost 2-0 at AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday. They currently tenth in the league two table, two points off the playoff places. Grimsby are fourth from bottom. Well, here's head coach Stephen Clements. I'm sure it is congested. I'm not studying the table. I'm just concentrating on the Grimsby game. I say to you at all the time, let's just concentrate on the next game. Obviously, I know how many there is to go. But that's all we can do, take care of one game at a time. We've had a bad week, the week before, we had a very good week. So it's now down to us as a football club, staff and players to react and get a good result of the weekend. I think they've done OK recently, they've got a good manager that's experienced at the lower levels. I know David, and one thing's for sure, they'll be very well organised. They've been playing the back five recently. And yeah, it'll be another test. There isn't a massive difference with any teams in this division. Everybody seems to give each other a game. And I'm expecting the same at the weekend. But it's down to us to go and take the game to them. We've got to get up to a good start, which we haven't done enough of. And can we go and get all three points? We've got the players to do it. But once they go over that white line, they've got to go and perform. We'll try and be on the front foot. We try and do that every game. Doesn't always work out as planned. But I don't want to make excuses, but we've got some big injuries in the squad as well. Obviously, we haven't got two of our strikers that we took in in January, have never been fit. We've got Dom Jeffries, who has been a big player for me. Hasn't been fit. We're going to have a suspension, we've got a Masterson. So it's not always easy, and it doesn't always turn out how we'd like it to. But one thing's for sure is the boys will be rolling their sleeves up. I've made sure the fans are there. And we'll be going to give it a go and get scrims with you. You'll be able to follow the match action this weekend at Kent Online. We'll also have reaction to the result in bulletins over on our sister radio station, KMFM on Sunday, plus more in Monday's episode of the podcast. But that's all from us for today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget, you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get details on the top stories to direct your email each morning via the briefing. To sign up to that, you just need to head to kentalign.co.uk. Whilst you're on the site today, don't forget to check out the latest review from our secret drinker, plus the latest episode of the Kent Politics Podcast is also live. You can get that at Kent Online or by going to iam-listening.co.uk. Have a fantastic weekend. We'll be back with the podcast on Monday. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. (dramatic music)
