When he received a small nick from his son's puppy, grandad Peter Braby thought nothing of it - but things quickly took a turn for the worse.

But within days, it had developed into a serious problem, as the wound on the 71-year-old’s leg started to grow.

Wife Anita said: “We instantly covered the scratch, but when we could see it getting worse we went to our GP and the local minor injury unit.

“We were really shocked when the wound kept getting bigger because we only thought it was a scratch.”

He was referred to Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital’s tissue viability specialist nurse Laura Lodge.

The grandad-of-four's healing was complicated by the steroids he was taking for rheumatoid arthritis.

And he suffered a further set-back when he ended up in hospital with pneumonia and lung complications.

He said: “By this point I was in quite a bad way. I was seeing all sorts of doctors for all sorts of things but one thing they agreed on was the steroids were slowing down healing of the leg. It was a bit of a vicious circle.”

Two months later and a new wound-medicine centre had opened at the Memorial, and the Minster resident was referred to Laura.

He added: “Within two weeks, the wound had calmed down and the pain was gone."

Now the retired plumber has thanked medical staff who treated him.

Peter said: “I visited the team three times a week for seven months and whoever I saw, without fail they were all excellent.

“It is a wonderful clinic and a pleasure to visit and if I hadn’t been referred there I don’t
know if my leg ever would have healed.

“You couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

The hospital is run by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.