An inquest into the death of a 12-year-old girl who suffered a severe asthma attack at a Medway school has heard how staff did their best to save her life.
Pearl Unu-Arubi went into cardiac arrest at Rochester Grammar School in March last year.
Also in today's podcast, a Kent MP has weighed into the debate about introducing a smacking ban.
Doctors have warned the current laws are "dangerously vague" and changes would help crack down on child abuse.
More than £150,000 pounds is thought to have been lost to ticket scams in Kent.
Among those being targeted by fraudulent tickets are Taylor Swift fans as the singer’s UK tour dates edge closer.
Developers behind plans for a 92-bed town centre hotel have pulled down hoardings around the site as the project has been stalled by water quality issues.
The wooden boundary was put up in Ashford just two months ago ahead of the demolition of a row of shops that currently occupies the plot.
And an iconic Kent seafront bandstand turns 100 today, but there are questions over its future.
The Herne Bay structure needs structural repairs, but council say they don't have the money to fix it.
Do you love antiques and vintage? Then don't miss our amazing antiques and vintage fare. This coming Saturday and Sunday at the Deathling Showground near Maidstone. With over 400 inside and outside sellers, there'll be thousands of antique and vintage treasures for you to explore. From furniture to jewelry to home and garden vintage, there's so much for you to browse and buy. There's free parking, refreshments and children enter for free. Dogs are welcome too. For more details, visit lovefares.com. Kent Online News News You Can Trust This is the Kent Online Podcast. Kate Faulkner Hello. Hope you're okay. Thank you for downloading today's podcast on Wednesday, April 17th. Today we'll be talking about ticket fraudsters scamming Kent residents out of thousands of pounds and later on we'll hear from Dame Kelly Holmes about the importance of staying active but first taking a look at our most read story today and inquest into the death of a 12-year-old girl who suffered a severe asthma attack in a medway school has heard how staff tried to save her life. Pearl Unu Arubi went into cardiac arrest at Rochester Grammar School on March 20 last year. She died in hospital 10 days later. Lauren has been following this story for the Kent Online Podcast. Lauren, an inquest into Pearl's death has heard how staff tried desperately to help. What do we know about the day she collapsed? Well, we know on that day, Pearl, along with her friends, went to the school office asking for her spare inhaler as she was having an asthma attack. The administrative assistant looked through the medication cabinet but couldn't find her inhaler. Deciding it would be quicker, Pearl was given the school's spare pump but her friends came back and were getting quite frantic. The assistant, who was first aid trained, asked the school's first aid leader for help. At this point, Pearl became quiet and slumped down in a chair. That's when the school rang for an ambulance. And what steps did staff take to help Pearl while they were waiting for the ambulance? After ringing the emergency services, the school assistant went to get their defibrillator while the first aid leader performed CPR. The principal, who was also trained in CPR, had been told about what was happening and was giving Pearl mouth to mouth. The 43-year-old told the inquest nobody froze, everybody reacted to get Pearl, her inhaler, as soon as they could and started CPR straight away. She says she doesn't know what they could have done differently. Did the inquest find that there was anything else that could have been done? Well, independent experts said the school had acted reasonably in their response to Pearl's attack. They find that even if the ambulance had been called a minute or so earlier, it would not have changed the outcome. Evidence from CCTV footage showed Pearl headed to the office at 1.52pm and the ambulance was called four minutes later. Paramedics arrived at the scene at around 204 and took over CPR, administered drugs and ventilated Pearl. She was taken to King's College Hospital but died on March the 30th. And how is Pearl being remembered now, more than a year on from her death? Her parents were at the inquest and had previously paid tribute to their kind and compassionate daughter. A family statement read out in court added, "Perle's vibrant personality illuminated every room. She was our ray of sunshine. She was our everything. Pearl's character shone brightly. They've also commended the thorough investigation conducted by the coroner's court." Thanks, Lauren. The school's also released a statement saying that Pearl was a shining light in the school community and that they've lost a wonderful student. Kent Online News. A Ramsgate man has been locked up for 15 years for a sex attack which left his victim terrified and paranoid. A court was told Leon Womsey carried out the attack just months after being released from prison in August 2022. The 25-year-old from her foot place will serve three years on license when he's released. Her teenage has been taken to hospital following a stabbing in Hearne Bay. Police were called to reports of an assault in central parade on Sunday night. A 19-year-old was taken to London for treatment and discharged the following day. Investigations are continuing. A man's been taken to hospital following a crash in Tundbridge Wells. Emergency services were called to Teter Road yesterday afternoon to reports of an accident involving a car, van and pedestrian. The victim was treated for serious injuries at the scene before being airlifted to a London hospital. Police investigating the supply of Class A drugs have seized a samurai sword from a property in Graves' End. Officers searched the home after identifying that a specific phone line was being used for the sale of heroin and cocaine. A 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with drugs and weapons offences. Kent Online News. She soon explains to ban people born after 2009, from ever buying cigarettes, have passed their first test in the comments. MPs voted in favour of the bill, which also includes a crackdown on young people vaping. However, there was some pushback from Conservative party members with 57 voting against the policy. Gillingham and Raynam's Raymond Chisti and Gravesham's Adam Holloway are among those who opposed. The bill got through with the backing of Labour. Doctors' warning laws around physical punishment are unjust and dangerously vague. The Royal College of Pediatrics is calling for smacking to be banned in England and Northern Ireland to help crack down on abuse and clarify some grey areas. There are already outright bans in Scotland and Wales. Seven Oaks MP Laura Trott doesn't think there should be any formal ban. "We obviously have very, very clear laws in this country about abuse of children. They're very clearly set out in the Children Act, but it's the parents to discipline their children. It's very, very clear that any abuse of children is completely unacceptable. We've been working very hard to make sure that all the agencies involved with children are really cracking down on abuse, that there are clear guidelines involved. But that is, I think, where we withdraw the line and just say, look, where it turns into abuse, that is unacceptable, but it's for parents to discipline their children." There's anger over plans to close a branch of NatWest in Midway. The Raynam branch is among five in the county that will be closing their doors this year. The bank says it's because more people are using online banking. Councillor Howard Doe represents Raynam's southeast. He's been speaking to Oliver from our colleagues at KMTV. "Well, I think it's a great shame, particularly for older people who are not, the majority of younger people who, of course, are very versed with online banking, and maybe that may not be quite so difficult for them, but I think that older people who are not used to online banking are going to feel, again, more alienated from banking services and so on. That becomes quite important to them as they get older. I think that it's a great shame that they have to do this now. I think that, in the fullness of time, they've obviously been able to have to do it. If there's a sheer volume of business going through the bank, according to the bank anyway, it's not actually sufficient to justify the retention of all the staff and the premises." People I've spoken to in Raynam say that the numbers on that West are giving aren't necessarily accurate. They see people going to the bank all the time. Have you seen more than three people in the last, however long, going into the bank? Is that West playing? Well, I think the question really is not only that, it's a question of the amount of business that they're doing and the amount of profit that they're making, and that I think that in nowadays, in actual banking on the high street, it's not the same because of the enormous amount of businesses being done online, so I think it's a casualty of the fact that when people are moving towards computerized services, but on the other hand, I do feel very sorry for people who don't bank online, and I don't think the banks collectively have given enough thought to where they're leaving older people as a set. They don't have a greater sense of social responsibility about cutting those people off from effectively services and shit. I mean, it means that, for example, if somebody wants to go and do banking, they have to go traipsing either into sitting born or into chat or something, it's probably not convenient they may not even drive, and so I think that when you get to that problem, there needs to be some provision for it, I don't know whether this would be, for example, they could have a banking branch which is used by all, although they claim, of course, it can be done through the post office, but again, not in large queues and so on, so I think it's a great shame they're withdrawing it, I think they should think more about social responsibility and much less about the bottom-lining catch, frankly. Victims in Cant lost more than £150,000 last year after being scammed by fraudulent ticket sellers. There were 190 reports of people in the county not receiving what they'd paid for, that's around 792 pounds per person. Ahead of concerts and sporting events this summer police and action fraud say you should only buy from reputable sites, Lisa Webb is from Consumer Group, which she's been speaking to Sky's Daisy Steele. We're seeing an awful lot of these fake ticket scams appearing on social media, a lot of them do appear on meta platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, and what we know is that these are tickets that aren't real, they don't exist, but people are being asked to transfer sums of money, sometimes very large sums of money, to an unknown person in exchange for tickets that never materialise. And it's criminals can spoof genuine websites, they can use fake images to convince you that what they're offering you is legitimate, but in all of these cases these are simply not real tickets and you will not get a ticket to the Taylor Swift tour. What sort of things should people be watching out for when it comes to these scams? Well, there are only two official retailers, who are the official ticketing partners for the Taylor Swift tour, there's a ticket master and a excess. So if it's not coming from one of those two official websites, I would say treat with extreme caution. I say it's a huge red flag if there is someone who is not one of those official retailers offering to sell you tickets. We know that these tickets are sold out all over the place. So anyone offering tickets, I would say treat them as a scammer in the very first instance. We also know that there are official competitions out there, so some brands do have tickets to give away, only enter ticket competitions that are advertised by legitimate brands or their official channels and websites. Do not just click on links that you see on social media, and also have a look to see if any websites are newly created, because if they are all Facebook accounts appear out of nowhere, they don't have followers, things like that. Those sorts of things aren't really, really worth looking out for, and just remember on social media, if you're buying from strangers on social media, you are very much open to being scammed. In particular, watch out for things like newly set up profiles, particularly if they don't have any followers or if they're not following anyone. They often you'll find that those accounts have been opened specifically just to scam people looking for tickets. The other thing you can also use that might be useful to people is reverse image searches. If you do a reverse image Google search, you can check where profile images actually come from in the first place to see if it's the real thing. The last thing really to look out for, and it sounds really cliche, and I apologize for repeating things that people hear all the time, but if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. If someone's telling you that they've just got these great tickets and they just can't happen to go, it's probably not true. Eric calls for something to be done about parking near a popular tourist attraction in Kent amid concerns visitors are having to walk along a 40 mile per hour road. Garza being left on Kingsdown Road near warmer Castle, which some fear is an accident waiting to happen. Seasonal parking at the site has been closed following heavy rainfall English heritage has apologized. Building work on a hotel in Ashford has stalled due to water quality issues. The 92 bed facility is set to replace a row of empty shops in new rents, but developers have been told they can't start work until pollution issues at the Stodmarsh Nature Reserve near Canterbury are resolved. Several building projects in East Kent have been delayed over fears of harmful wastewater getting into the ecosystem. Kent Online News Research seen by the Kent Online podcast shows three and four of us still aren't getting enough exercise each week. The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise every seven days. According to a new study, we're averaging 83 minutes for Macant Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes says it's vital to our physical and mental health to get moving and money shouldn't be a barrier. Don Kelly's been speaking to Abbey Hook from our colleagues at KMTV. I'm always interested in it. Of course, I've been into fitness all my life and we've always talked about the problem with people's inactivity. This year it started off that the report was pretty positive, that we're moving far more than we did in 2022 as a nation, 83 minutes per week of physical activity. However, never said of that, the NHS suggests that we should be doing a minimum of 150 minutes per week and so actually we're not doing enough. And I think that we just have to somehow get a message out about why people should move their bodies more. Now for people who don't get active for whatever reason that may be lifestyle and they may be restricted, it may be because of health reasons, there are also long term health risks that then come with that. Do you think this is something we don't talk about enough and perhaps is seen as a bit of a taboo or a stigma? There's a lot of obviously misconceptions and myths around why people don't exercise and or can't exercise. Now I know there are some people that listen that for whatever reason health wise cannot but there's also a huge population of people that use it as the barriers to it as cost or time or embarrassment or you know don't want to go to a gym because they don't know what they're doing. But if you think about it, it doesn't actually have to cost a lot to move. So you go out for a brisk walk, you don't have to have any form of you know special clothing for that. If you want to get into running, you just need a pair of trainers and you know some basic running kit, you can start a couch to 5k program that gets you out and you have an achievement. If you you know kind of know that your mental health is deteriorating, exercise is one way of combating bad mental health because actually what happens is you're going out, you're doing something firstly for you, you're doing something that's going to re-energize you, re-motivate you, give you fresh air, get the body stimulated moving and it can have such a positive effect on your mental health. There's lots of there's lots of things that you can do when it comes to time like make time for yourself. Who says that in a 24 hour day, you shouldn't be unapologetically doing so for yourself. Even if it's 20 minutes, 30 minutes, no one can say they shouldn't do something for themselves and fitness is one of I think the one thing that actually is totally about you because you've got to think what you're doing, you might have to think about your form or your breathing or where you're going. It's literally the only thing that you do when it's for you only. It's something you've actually been really open about in the past, talking about mental health and struggle that come along with that and it's something a lot of people deal with and a lot of people have that blockage to sort of getting out. I suppose the minute you get out and you get that exercise that starts to dissipate. But how did being open and talking about mental health help you and then I suppose because of the platform you have, how's that then help others do you think? Well, I think from my point of view, talking about my mental health was critical to put in a message out there that even though I'd achieved something really, really big that was on a public platform, it didn't mean that I didn't struggle to get there and whereas when I came back, especially from Athens, I got put on this real high pedestal because I was the first person to win two gold medals at the same games. It wasn't where social media now puts loads of people out there. It was in a premier sport like athletics and everyone thought, I was having these titles of superhuman and incredible and whatever and I was like, well, I've done something pretty damn good but to get there was not easy and I felt that if I was talking about the struggles, that would be more empowering to say that even though I struggled, I still succeeded because for me that's a message to say that we're actually really strong people no matter what we go through but then I use my platform now because they all say, you know, one in four, one in probably three now it will get or be affected by bad or poor mental health and that is because of many things that control our lives but also when you then feel like bad mental health actually puts you lower, more depressed, lack of energy, lack of motivation, you're in a steady climb down anyway so if you then don't do any exercise all you're doing is slumping down into that pit and it's very hard to get up whereas those that might be struggling get out and prioritise exercise and movement to help with their mental health, alleviate some of those issues around lack of energy, you get more energised, alleviate those things around motivation because you set yourself a goal to go somewhere or to do something so actually it's had such a positive part of mental, your mental health, I advocate it all the time and I'm not an elite athlete anymore, I do run, yes I do, I do do strength training because I know it's a benefit for somebody of my age, you know I do all those things but I do it purely because I can and while we can, while we're healthy enough to do it, why aren't we and secondly because I think it's vital for me to stay positive and energised and you know have good mental health. Kent Online News. Archaeologists have started work on a site in Dover that'll eventually be home to a new digital and creative campus and business centre excavations on bench street are expected to last until the end of May building work on the Dover Beacon project should then start later in the year. A campsite on the Kent coast has been forced to close after recent landslides, folks done camping in caravan and club but the Warren hasn't renewed its lease with the council due to uncertainty over the safety of the area, huge cracks have appeared in the nearby promenade and access road in recent weeks. The bandstand in Hearne Bay is celebrating its 100th birthday but there are some concerns about its future. The structure on Central Parade needs expensive structural work carried out but council bosses say they don't have the cash. Last year the town lost out into 13 million pounds in levelling up funding which they've described as very disappointing. Stephen Brazer lives in the town and thinks it should be brought back to life. It's been empty for almost a year now but I'd love to see a bar in town. I've been on a cocktail bar. It'd be nice but it'd be I mean not no restaurant because it'd been this is a restaurant next door here as well but yes it'd be nice to have some of you now. I do believe it's most important to talk to to very old and it's our heritage really. As I was growing up it was a little bit run down. Yeah it was run down. You used to be a tourist people motion centre many many years ago but they say that now that they built with a small layout then there's a lovely graph we put a little brick on it and painted it out and so yeah it looked nice. It's very nice all. A town centre car park has been closed for the filming of an ITV drama middle street car park in Deal will be transformed into a film set for the long-awaited six series of Unforgotten the drama follows cold case detectives as they work tirelessly to unravel long held secrets crews will be in deal until around six tonight and there are calls for new cricket nets at a grammar school in West Ken to be made available to the local community. The Judd School in Tunbridge wants to put 10 nets on its upper playing fields replacing an existing dilapidated facility sport England according for residents to have access to something the school hasn't planned for the secretary of state could eventually decide. Ken's online sport briefly in football Gillingham's faint hopes of a playoff place haven't improved after a busy night of league two action last night's results saw Stockport claim the title Mansfield clinch promotion at Forest Green relegated it leaves the Jills intense place they need other teams to drop points and will have to win all of their remaining fixtures including a way at Mansfield this Saturday to make the playoffs and a swimmer from Ken has been named as part of Team GB for the Olympic Games in Paris later this year either Akaro is a member of Seven Oaks Swimming Club the teenager will become the first black woman to represent Team GB in the pool that's all from us 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 the details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via the briefing to sign up just head to kentonline.co.uk news you can trust this is the kent online podcast [BLANK_AUDIO]
