A grandmother has been left baffled after Royal Mail returned a Christmas card to her address - almost nine years after she posted it.

Myra Mizon, 78, of The Grove, Herne Bay, sent the card to her niece Jenny and great-niece Chanel in December 2010, along with a cheque for £10.

It never arrived and Mrs Mizon and her husband Chris assumed it had been lost among the millions of festive letters and parcels.

But just a couple of weeks ago, she was flabbergasted when it came through her letterbox in pristine condition.

“I was shocked,” she said. “You can’t make a story up like that, you really can’t.

“I just thought, where has it been? It wasn’t even open - no one had attempted to open it.”

It appears Royal Mail at some point attempted to deliver the card - which features a picture of a snowman - to Jenny, now 39, and Chanel, 18, in Chelmsford, Essex, who no longer live in the same house.

It was then sent back to Mrs Mizon, who had written her return address on the back of the envelope.

“It was Christmas, and I would imagine lots of mail goes missing for whatever reason,” the former telephone operator continued.

“I just forgot about it and reimbursed my niece with a cheque for the money.

“Then about two or three weeks ago, it came through my letterbox. Luckily enough, I had actually put my name and address on the back.

“It’s a bit of a joke. When you pay your money for a card to be delivered, you don’t expect to have to wait eight or nine years.”

Mrs Mizon says she has been told by Royal Mail customer services - which has offered her a book of first class stamps by way of compensation - that her post could have gone missing due to issues with a former employee.

They say a temporary worker had to be dismissed at about the same time after numerous complaints were lodged about letters not turning up, and an employee was found to have been stealing post.

“They did find out who the person was, and he was immediately sacked. But they can’t say for sure whether my card was one of the ones they stole. We’ll never know,” she added.

“It may also have got stuck somewhere in the machinery, and perhaps they found it when they were having a clear-out.”

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “It is difficult to speculate what may have happened to this item of mail. Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its processing machines daily.

“Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the card.”

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