Time cannot heal the loss of 17-year-old Kelly Turner, says her father, despite the attitudes of some people.

Martin Turner, who spoke to KentOnline for the fifth anniversary of the teenager's death from a rare cancer, says he and wife Linda are still feeling the intense grief today as when they lost their child on November 6, 2017.

While Kelly was still alive there was a mass fundraising effort to raise the £1 million needed for her for specialist treatment in America.

Money is still being donated today in her name to help other youngsters with the same kind of illness.

Mr Turner, from Dover, said: "The grief for us is as raw as then. I struggle to make any sense as to why Kelly passed away.

"We had such faith that she would be saved.

"We keep being reminded of what happened because we keep bumping into people wo helped in the fundraising.

"Having said that the amount of help people gave then was fabulous

"Time can't heal but some people have the attitude of: 'Oh, come on that happened five years ago,' but they haven't lost a child.

"Linda's Christian faith helps keep her strong but if I didn't have her and my job in radio I would have sunk into deep depression by now."

Mr Turner, a presenter at Dover Community Radio station, will mark today's anniversary with wife Linda by visiting Kelly's grave in Dover.

In October 2015 Kelly, then 15, was diagnosed with a rare from of cancer called desmoplastic small round cell tumours, an aggressive form of cancer, that occurs mostly in adolescent and young people.

It was eventually found that £1 million was needed for treatment to save her life at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Between that October and June 2016, the Dover St Edmund’s RC School pupil has undergone nine rounds of chemotherapy, with many more to come, lost all her hair, and had been told that high risk surgery to remove the tumour was not available to her in the UK.

The treatment was considered high risk because the tumours were close to her liver, yet without the surgery her life expectancy was two years.

KentOnline broke the story on June 4, 2016 and from then floods of help and support poured in over the next year from people in Dover and neighbouring towns to reach the target figure.

Over the next 17 months fundraising events were held for her under the slogan: "Doing it for Kelly."

The whole community rallied, with local banks and businesses such as shops and cafés provided collection tins in their premises.

There were raffles, pub quizzes, tag days and concerts, particularly a series of four in Dover and Folkestone in July 2016, organised by Richard Esdale of the JigInTheBox musical events company.

That same month he produced the Band Aid-style record, called Proud, featuring local musicians.

KentOnline staff also got involved with reporter Sam Lennon, in Dover, having his legs waxed and putting himself in the stocks, with local councillors, for sponge throwing that autumn.

That September colleagues including Beth Robson and Eleanor Perkins put on a fundraising ball and auction in Deal.

John Ashman, 50, slept rough for seven nights in January 2017 during some of the coldest nights of that winter raising £14,000.

Jordan Walton, of Deal, reaped £10,000 through events such as sponsored walks.

Kelly attracted the support of celebrities such as Ricky Wilson, singer of the Kaiser Chiefs meeting her.

Canadian rock star Bryan Adams met her and her parents when he performed at the Spitfire Ground in Canterbury in August 2016.

He asked his fans to give cash to collection buckets and more than £7,000 was raised that day.

In all, about £600,000 had been raised in Kelly's lifetime.

But she could not be saved and succumbed to the disease at 2.45am on November 6, 2017 at the Royal Marsden specialist cancer hospital in London.

Her funeral, on November 24, at Mary The Virgin Church in Dover, was a major public farewell with people lining the streets during the procession to pay their respects.

It involved a scooter cavalcade and mourners were asked to dress brightly to celebrate her life. Mr and Mrs Turner wore red.

Kelly has never been forgotten and a memorial bench was unveiled for her last November, for the fourth anniversary, at the then new Clock Tower Square at Dover Western Docks.

Money is still being given to help other victims of this type of cancer.

It is now done through the Kelly Turner Foundation, created after her death, and is for The Institute of Cancer Research to discover a targeted chemotherapy or other cure for DSRCT.

The sum raised to date is £642,592, which is 64% of the original targeted million.