The grieving family of a pensioner who died in Medway Maritime Hospital say they are disgusted some of her jewellery went missing after she died.

The family of Linda Harrell initially thought some of her jewellery had been stolen when they discovered it was missing when a family member when to see her at a funeral parlour.

Mrs Harrell, 69, died at the Gillingham-based hospital on Sunday, August 6, and told her family her dying wish was to be buried with her jewellery on.

Her daughter, Kelly Stringer, and son-in-law Mick Cradduck, promised Mrs Harrell, a mother-of-three, they would honour her wishes and bury her with her jewellery on.

As a result they instructed hospital staff to leave her rings, earrings and bangles on her body.

Mrs Harrell, a grandmother and great grandmother, who lived in Lower Gillingham, died after a battle with oesophagus and brain cancer and the last time her family saw her at the hospital, she was wearing six gold bangles, three pairs of gold earrings and three gold rings.

However, Mrs Harrell, a divorcee, was later taken to the mortuary, where staff recorded she was only wearing three rings and had no other jewellery on her.

Later she was taken to one of T Allen Funeral Service’s homes in the Towns where staff also recorded Mrs Harrell was only wearing three rings.

Ms Stringer, 46, who lives in Boughton Monchelsea is horrified about what’s happened and had reported the matter as a theft to police.

She said: “My daughter, Melissa, her (Linda’s) granddaughter went to see mum at the funeral home and discovered the jewellery was missing.

“We checked with the funeral home and the mortuary at the hospital and both had on their notes that my mother-in-law only had three rings on and no other jewellery.

“The last time we saw her in the hospital she was wearing the six bangles and the three pairs of earrings, but they had disappeared. We could only conclude they were stolen.”

Both Ms Stringer and Mrs Cradduck had called the ward Mrs Harrell had been cared for and had asked staff to check the safe to see if the jewellery was at the site, but was told it was not.

Mr Cradduck said: “My partner was distraught. It was just horrific to think someone could have taken the jewellery from a dead person.

“My partner was distraught. It was just horrific to think someone could have taken the jewellery from a dead person" - Mike Cradduck

“Both Kelly and I had called the hospital and we were both told the jewellery was not there, so we contacted the Kentonline and within hours we had a call back from the hospital to say the jewellery had been found.

"It has been very distressing for us all at a time when he are already distressed.

"We are grieving and should not have been put through this."

Ms Stringer added: “Mum always said she never felt dressed if she didn’t have her jewellery on and they were her actual words to me about being buried in her jewellery, that she would not be dressed properly.

“I was heartbroken I could not keep the promise to my mum, I would have been letting her down it was just horrible.

I’d also like to know why the jewellery was taken from mum when we had asked for it to left where it was.

“Her funeral is being held next Wednesday, August 23, at Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, and we just wanted the items returned.

“I can’t thank KentOnline enough for getting involved, within just a couple of hours after we called, we had the jewellery back.”

Karen Rule, director of nursing at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are very sorry for the distress that Mrs Harrell’s family have experienced due to the misplaced jewellery and we are pleased that we have been able to locate it for them.

"The jewellery was stored securely at the Trust at all times, but an error in our property logging procedures meant that it was not located as quickly as it should have been.

"We will be raising the issue with staff to try to ensure that an incident like this does not happen again.”