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2 days ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
A cancer patient says she has been left “distressed and hounded” by a parking firm after stopping at a hotel to recover from the shock of a life-changing hospital diagnosis. Áine Alam had just been told she had malignant cancer and would need urgent, life-saving surgery when she left an appointment at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury on March 19.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
A rare chance to step aboard history is being offered to town visitors as a full-scale replica of a 15th century ship that carried Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic docks. The legendary Santa María famously welcomed the intrepid Italian explorer as he sailed the sea as part of his historic voyage in 1942. Built in Spain using traditional 15th-century techniques, the Nao Santa María is not just a ship but a floating museum.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
Teenagers have breathed new life into faded denim, transforming old clothes into one-of-a-kind designs to raise money for a children’s hospice charity. Students at MidKent College’s Medway Campus in Gillingham used donated items to create bespoke fashion pieces in support of Demelza, which cares for youngsters with serious or life-limiting conditions.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
I still remember the first time I set foot in Kent, twenty-six years ago. There was a little stone church tucked away in a lush churchyard, its headstones leaning gently beneath the trees, some so old, they whispered stories from Queen Victoria’s reign. A whitewashed pub stood nearby, and just beyond it, a red telephone box added a splash of colour to the scene. In the distance, soft waves of green and gold stretched into the horizon.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
A series of spray-painted tags have sprung up in a town prompting patrols and a search to catch an elusive “Banksy wannabe”. The name “Lorenso” has been repeatedly daubed in graffiti across various street furniture and property around Snodland. The tag has been spotted on a utility box, a public bin, and metal doors near a substation in recent weeks.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
Police are investigating reports that a man touched a teenager inappropriately in a park. At around 4pm on Thursday, April 17, a group of girls were listening to music in a green space on the Sonora Fields estate in Sittingbourne when they say they were approached by a man who was described as unsteady on his feet. The man began talking to the group before sitting down near them on the grass, between Amethyst Drive and The Meads Avenue, and dancing.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
There can’t be many jobs where you get paid in crabs, clients stipulate their loved ones can’t blow their inheritance on “fast cars and fast women”, and you handle £80 million of personal wealth. But for one family-run company celebrating its 25th anniversary, such cases are part and parcel of the daily routine. Back in 2000, Robert and Gill Phipps set up Pembroke Will Writers with a second-hand laptop and printer in the dining room of their home.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
Two mums have spoken about the pain of losing their babies and how the support they received from a charity helped them through it ahead of a celebrity football fundraiser. Making Miracles, a baby trauma and bereavement charity based in Kent, is organising the match to be held at Chatham Town FC’s Bauvill Stadium next month. It will feature a stellar line-up of celebs from Love Island, EastEnders, TOWIE, and Strictly Come Dancing, including Calum Best, Dean Gaffney, Jake Wood, and Dan Osborne.
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1 week ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
A new family-run business is making a name for itself with gourmet mushrooms, medicinal extracts and grow-your-own kits, just months after launching at farmers’ markets. Valley Mushrooms, founded by Louie Thomas and his family, began as a backyard hobby and has since grown into a full-scale venture, supplying fresh produce to home cooks as well as cafes and professional chefs. The story started not in a greenhouse or woodland but on the sofa, with a television documentary.
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2 weeks ago | 
kentonline.co.uk | Dee Lukasik
An award-winning artisan bakery is closing after a decade of trading. The Bakehouse at 124, based in Tonbridge High Street, said it would be shutting its doors tomorrow (May 24), with “amazing memories that will last a lifetime”. Founded in 2015 by Clare Barton, the bakery became a local favourite for its handmade sourdough bread, croissants, cruffins and pastries, all baked fresh each morning using traditional methods and locally-sourced ingredients.
