Dartford and Gravesham have the largest percentage of older primary school children in Kent who are overweight or obese.

This is nothing to be proud of and really we should all be disgusted. These obese kids are turning into obese adults and normal weight people are becoming a rare species.

As I have written in my previous articles I am seeing teenagers with type two diabetes. This should never happen and in my view it is a crime against humanity. Think about it for a minute. We are allowing that child to die early. We as a community are allowing our children to suffer heart attacks, blindness, strokes and kidney failure at some point in the future. Come on people, can we not take some action?

Collectively we could be a force. We need to fight dangerous food advertising. In Gravesend I see hardly any healthy eating options at any cafe or restaurant.

I see parents take their kids to classes at the council-run health centres and after the activity reward their child with junk food from the vending machines. The poor kid may have burnt off 500 calories but is consuming 1000.

Patients go in to hospital for a heart bypass only for him/her to come out to a vending machine. No wonder the NHS is running out of money.

But there is hope. I came across thehealthyvendingcompany.co.uk and at least it’s a start. We should be asking our local councils and hospitals to provide these healthy vending machines so at least we do have an option between a healthy snack and junk food.

And to go a bit further healthy eating shops should be exempt from business rates or at least have a significant reduction so we can start seeing more of these on our high streets. I am on the Health and Wellbeing board and my single voice can only shout so much. I am desperately trying to raise awareness of the horrendous situation we are in. Not only will the NHS collapse but so will social care. The consequences of childhood/adult obesity are far reaching.

Please join me and petition your council and local MP to take urgent action to tackle childhood obesity. Healthy vending machines are a start.

n If you or your child want to lose weight start by removing junk food from the house. I am a big fan of the low carb Mediterranean diet for weight loss. A really good website to look at is dietdoctor.com