Daughter 'devastated' after ashes of late mother who died of Covid lost by Royal Mail

A woman has been left "mortified" after her mother's ashes were lost in the post.

Kayleigh Evans put some of her mother's ashes in a pendant as a gift to a family member, only to find out it had been lost in transit by Royal Mail.

Evans claims she posted the pendant first-class on September 21 to her auntie - her mother's only sister.

More than a month later and Kayleigh's family say they have been left "devastated" after the package has still not been located.

Kayleigh, from Swansea, lost her mother Christine Evans in December 2021 aged 62 after catching coronavirus.

As a way to honour her, Kayleigh decided to include some of her ashes in a silver memorial pendant and gift it to her mother's only sister in Colchester. The pendant read, "your wings sister were ready but your heart was not."

Despite sending the necklace from Swansea on September 21, it never arrived. Kayleigh claims to have had countless phone calls with Royal Mail, but the postal service told her they don't know where it is.

"Royal Mail hasn’t got a clue where the necklace and the ashes are," said Kayleigh.

'It’s heart breaking'

"They keep saying they just can’t find it. Obviously, my auntie is mortified. She's devastated. She was saying ‘that’s my sister Kayleigh!’, but what can I do?"

According to Kayleigh, Royal Mail initially blamed the lost package on the strike, but eventually told the family there's nothing they could do.

Kayleigh has highlighted the emotional distress the event has had on the family. She said: "It’s not even about the necklace, part of my mother is floating around somewhere. It’s not nice. It’s heart breaking, it’s weird really.

"It’s her sister more than anything that I’m upset about. When I sent it off to her she was saying ‘thank you so much’ and she was so pleased, and now she’s just devastated."

Royal Mail have since apologised and acknowledged the "deep emotional significance of the item." However, they urged customers to use the appropriate service when sending valuable items.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "Unfortunately it appears that this item was sent using a service which does not offer tracking and this makes it harder for us to locate it within our systems.

"The tracking options and level of compensation cover vary according to which delivery product is chosen, so we urge all customers to carefully consider which product is best when sending highly significant items."