Facebook post helps find late wife's rings at Colchester Hospital

Ronald Warren, 69, was at his wife of 50 years’ Rosemary’s bedside at Colchester Hospital on Wednesday afternoon when she died, aged 68, following a three year battle with cancer.

After returning home to Clacton Mr Warren realised he had mislaid a tissue containing a number of rings of huge sentimental value.

He turned to social media in a bid to track the jewellery down, with a post on Facebook being shared by more than 15,000 people.

Two security guards at the Turner Road site, Neville Windard and Lee Simonds, caught wind of the missing items and searched to locate them inside a face mask bin.

Mr Warren, a father-of-three and grandfather-of-five, said: “When we got home I thought I would have a look but we found her earrings and not her rings.

“I phoned the hospital and the nurses checked the bins in the room. Half an hour later they got back to me to say they couldn’t find them.”

Luckily Neville’s wife had spotted the post on Facebook and contacted Mr Warren for more information.

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He said: “I explained what had happened and I said I remember wearing a mask and disposing of it at the hospital.

“They checked the CCTV footage and saw me go out to the lobby. When I was outside the hospital I did not have my mask.

“When I took my mask off I had a tissue in my hand and in all the confusion I had put the rings in the bin when I discarded it. These masks go into a compressor so fortunately it had not been emptied.”

Rosemary Warren with daughter Caroline and granddaughter Charlie

A delighted Mr Warren collected the items from security staff at 1.30am yesterday.

He said: “My wife made arrangements her wedding ring would go to my eldest daughter and her mum’s wedding ring would go to her sister.

“They meant a lot to her and I felt she charged me with looking after them. I lost them and felt I had let her down.

“It really shows the best of social media. I probably never would have got them back without it.

“I cannot praise the security guards highly enough. They even searched the car park.”

Dr Angela Tillett, Chief Medical Officer at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Colchester Hospital, said: “Firstly, we would like to extend our deepest and sincerest condolences to Mr Warren at this very sad time.

“It must have been very upsetting for him when his wife’s rings were lost in the hospital, but we are very glad that our teams were able to help and support both Mr Warren and his wife when they needed them most.”