Reunited with lost golden medal

Hazel was "delighted" when she was reunited with her gold medal

Hazel Theobald, from Southwick in Sunderland, thought she had seen the last of a treasured 1918 medal when she lost it on a trip to Newcastle.

She asked the British Transport Police to see if it had been handed in, but with no luck, left the station.

The gold medal was then found by the police who then launched a media appeal to reunite Hazel with her medal.

Hazel said: "I just didn't expect to get it back at all, especially with gold being a high price."

The medal was won in a football competition by a relative of Hazel's in 1918 and she knew its unique engraving off by heart.

"I'm delighted, I'm really pleased the police found it... It's from 1918 and it's a runners-up medal from the [football competition] Chalmers Cup."

British Transport Police (BTP) PCSO Dean Kitchin was approached by Hazel initially at Sunderland rail station who said she had lost a piece of sentimental jewellery.

Unfortunately, Hazel didn't leave her details.

A short while after the locket was found at the station and handed in to police.

Sentimental value

Hazel was reunited with the medal with help from British Transport Police

PC Dean Kitchin said: "I knew how much the locket meant to the lady and the sentimental value it held, she was visibly upset that she had lost it.

"Although it initially felt like finding a needle in a haystack I was determined to try and trace her.

"Following the media appeal Mrs Theobald contacted BTP to say she thought she may have been the person that they had been talking about on the television.

"She was really, really pleased to be reunited with the locket, and was very surprised as, being gold, it was worth a lot of money and assumed it would have been sold on."