THE family of a bright and talented teenager who died in a road accident have paid tribute to their own "angel".

Jasmin Sibley, 14, was knocked down while crossing the A274 Headcorn Road, Sutton Valence, on November 30.

The accident has left her family and the community in shock. Her friends have turned a traffic island near the spot into a temporary shrine to the bubbly Swadelands School student known to all as Jazz.

Her mother Lesley Sibley, 48, said: "It’s just emptied everything. Everything’s just empty. She was larger than life."

Jasmin was the only sister to five brothers and a half brother aged between 10 and 29-years-old.

Jasmin was a talented cross country runner who was Ashford and Weald district champion in both the 800 metre and 1500 metre events earlier this year - in a competition she kept secret from her mum and her husband Graham.

Mrs Sibley said: "She never even mentioned it was coming up. I didn’t know anything until the school rang me up and said she had done really well. She just went and won it."

Her family and teachers believed she could one day have made it to the Olympic games.

"Her PE teacher said they just stood there with their mouths open because they didn’t realise she could run," said Mrs Sibley. "She just left everyone standing."

Jasmin also loved singing and stepped in to take the lead in her school production of Little Shop of Horrors at the last minute when the original girl was ill.

On the day she died, Jasmin had beaten nearly 200 other runners in a school cross country event.

"She came home full of it - she had come second or third out of 200 girls," said Mrs Sibley.

"She was straight on the computer to find out who’s where and what’s going on. She didn’t bother having her tea. She got up, put her hoody on and went out of the door, and that was it - just like she normally does. And then I got the phone call."