A grieving woman has lost a treasured locket containing her late father's ashes and a lock of his hair.

Tracy Rowlands returned from a shopping trip in Colchester town centre to find the gold keepsake missing from her neck.

It contains some of the ashes of her father Arthur Challis, 72, and a lock of hair cut from his head just five minutes before he died in a hospital bed.

Mrs Rowlands, 35, of Barbel Road, off Bromley Road, Colchester, had never taken the £70 locket off since she bought it from a catalogue and filled it with mementos a few months ago.

She has contacted lost property at Colchester police station but the locket has not been handed in.

She said: "I was so close to him it made me feel safe wearing it. I feel like someone has ripped my insides out. It's like something is missing.

"When you lose a parent there is a gap in your life but the locket seemed to fill it. I feel lost now."

Most of the ashes of Mr Challis, who lived in Basildon, were scattered into the Thames because he worked as a docker when he was young.

But Mrs Rowlands kept some, folded them in paper and put them in the locket. He died from heart problems last November, but before the life support machine was switched off, Mrs Rowlands asked a nurse to cut a lock of his hair.

She glued this to the inside of the locket. Mrs Rowlands added: "I wanted to take something away while he was still alive. I wanted to pick him up and take him home but I couldn't do that.

"There are no more ashes left, they have all been scattered. There is nothing left except the locket."

She has searched her car but believes the locket may have fallen off as she scoured bookshops in Colchester on Tuesday.

Anyone who finds it should contact the property office at Colchester police station on 01206 762212.

Tracy Rowlands with a picture of her late father - she is determined to find the locket which helped her come to terms with his death

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