Cancer patient begs Royal Mail to deliver letters to Portslade home

Jean Winstanley, 88, of Locks Crescent in Portslade, says deliveries dropped to just once a week roughly four months ago, at roughly the same time she was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.

Jean lives with her bedridden husband Peter, 91, who is visited four times each day by carers. The time of each visit changes each week, and the couple should receive a letter every Monday to inform them of the schedule.

When The Argus visited Jean on Monday (September 1) she was clutching a pack of 14 letters delivered that morning – two of which contained Peter’s carer schedule for previous weeks.

It was the first lot of post Jean had received in ten days.

“Royal Mail need to buck their ideas up or for someone to go and kick them up the backside,” said Jean.

It is vital that Jean knows when her husband’s carers will visit as due to her lung cancer, her doctor says she can only climb the stairs to visit him once a day.

“I have trouble breathing and I can’t have any treatment, because if they give me treatment it’s going to make me worse,” said Jean.

“My husband’s completely bedridden, he’s been in bed for four years. He had polio when he was 18 months old, so it comes back, it’s called post-polio. It comes back with a bigger bite.”

Jean says she regularly has to contact Worthing hospital as she fears missing important information or appointments that should have arrived via post.

“It makes me annoyed, I’m waiting for my letters. My husband’s letters. It’s been happening for a long time.

“A friend of mine had to go down the post office to get them herself last week and she said there was a pile of them waiting for her.

The Royal Mail sorting office in Portslade is facing staff sickness issues, the company said (Image: Google Maps)

“But I can’t go out and get them.”

Royal Mail blamed “staff sickness” for the weekly deliveries across the last four months.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We are sorry this resident and others in Locks Crescent have experienced delays to their post.

“Improving our quality of service is our top priority and we are committed to restoring service levels to where our customers expect them to be.

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“There have been recent issues with sick absence at the local delivery office and this has caused some delays to deliveries. However, we would like to reassure residents that every effort is being made to keep these delays to a minimum.

“Mail continues to be delivered every day throughout Portslade and anyone who has post to be delivered, and does not receive it on the day they expect, will be prioritised the following day.”

The Argus challenged Royal Mail on its claims sickness had affected the frequency of deliveries for four months, but the company told us: “Sick absence is an ongoing issue at the delivery office, and one that impacts other DO areas. It is something we are working hard to resolve.”