MEDWAY'S business people have been stunned by the sudden death of a colleague.

Eamonn O'Hara, 50, a Gillingham publican and director of North Kent Chamber of Commerce, died on January 3.

Eddie Sparkes, the chamber's membership executive, said: "This has been a terrible shock. It has been a bolt out of the blue.

"He built up a reputation for being a champion of small businesses with a good knowledge of their needs.

"As a person he was very approachable and affable but he was also firm when he had to be.

"He spoke his mind but did so in a diplomatic way.''

Chamber co-director Sylvia Meade said: "This is a great loss. He was a good friend to many of us. He was totally genuine -- also a good businessman and a hard worker."

Mr O'Hara, who had worked in banking in Hong Kong, became a director of the North Kent Chamber's predecessor Medway Chamber of Commerce in 2002.

Last November he was voted on to the board of 15 directors for the new chamber, based at Sunderland Quay on Medway City Estate.

This organisation has 800 member companies and covers North Kent from Sittingbourne to Dartford.

Mr O'Hara owned the company Drinkmaster, which sells vending machines, and the Brickmakers Arms in Wyles Street, Gillingham, where he lived.

Mr O'Hara, was a widower who leaves two daughters, aged 14 and 21.

His funeral will be held on January 19 at St Thomas of Canterbury church in Rainham.