Award winning blind sculptor and physiotherapist Harry Kennett has died following a battle with cancer.

The 80-year-old passed away at his home in Oak Lane, Minster, last Friday.

He lost his sight and a leg as a schoolboy during the Second World War when he discovered an anti-aircraft bomb which then blew up.

He did not let his handicaps hold him back and went on to qualify as a physiotherapist and spent his working life at Sheppey General Hospital.

He also became a talented sculptor and won numerous art competitions by feeling animals then sculpting models of them from clay.

In one Kent competition one of the judges refused to merit his entries as he believed it could not be possible for a blind person to create such perfect work.

He made medical history himself more than once in his life – when he was in his 40s, he cheated death when he was taken into hospital with a heart condition and not expected to make it through the night and told to expect a heart bypass if he did.

Instead of having the operation, he changed his diet to a raw food diet of fruit and vegetables and six months later astounded consultants by being completely fit and healthy again with the heart of a young man.

Later on he was one of the first people in the country to take part in clinical trials for the drug melatonin which helps regulate sleep patterns – a particular problem for blind people as the lack sight often means their brains do not differentiate between night and day. The drug is now widely used as a jet-lag remedy.

He had an interest in fitness all his life and been weight training and swimming on a regular basis right until the end of his life.

He even had a special swimming artificial leg made for his use and swam 70 lengths of the Sheerness pool on his 70th birthday.

He was married to Joan and leaves behind four daughters and two sons.

Mr Kennett lost his sight aged 13 when he was involved in an explosion when he came across an anti-aircraft bomb on a ploughed field at Tadwell Farm, Minster, which blinded him and blew off one of his legs.

His friend who was with him at the time was killed in the explosion.

His injuries would have been a great deal more extensive had he not collected a number of small sandbags which had been used for ballast on the balloon which carried the bomb and stuffed them into his trousers and inside the front of his dungarees. He wanted the sand for his pet budgie.

His funeral will be held at the Garden of England Cemetery at Bobbing on Friday, February 13, at 3pm.