Widow in watch plea
A GRIEVING widow is offering a £1,000 reward to find a “priceless” stolen wedding gift.
Nicola Jowett received the watch the day she married her late husband, who was dying of cancer.
A GRIEVING widow has made a desperate plea for help finding a “priceless” wedding gift given to her by her late husband as he was dying of brain cancer.
Nicola Jowett received the watch on December 3, 2016, the day she married her partner Morgan, who was battling a brain tumour at the time.
But her prized possession was lost or stolen after it was transferred more than 300 miles away from her home to Glasgow’s Fraser Hart Jewellers for repair.
The devastated 35-year-old has no information on the whereabouts of the watch – which vanished shortly after it was delivered to the city store on August 7.
She told the Evening Times: “At first they told me it was lost, and then they said it was stolen and offered to get me another watch.
“They can get me 10,000 watches, it won’t make a difference.
“They signed for it with the courier on August 7 so it’s either been stolen by the courier or their staff but I don’t care, I just want it back.
“It’s quite an expensive watch, but not very expensive, but to me it’s priceless.”
Nicola was desperate not to part with the Tag Heuer Link watch but, due to the design, it had to be sent away for repair.
She was assured the firm would handle the matter professionally when she left it at her local Fraser Hart branch in Peterborough.
But their attempts to resolve the problem failed and she was recommended to send the item 303 miles north to Glasgow for a week-long spell – the first time she hasn’t worn it since her wedding day almost two years ago.
The timepiece provided a happy memory in a “perfect” yet bittersweet wedding day surrounded by their loved ones.
Nicola’s 48-year-old husband had been told he had just six months to live in October of that year, prompting the pair to scrap their planned nuptials in the South of France in favour of a ceremony hosted by the bride’s employers in their Lincolnshire home town.
He had been having trouble picking things up and suspected a trapped nerve until he collapsed during an examination with the a physical therapist.
An MRI and biopsy soon followed and revealed the couple’s worst fears – Morgan had stage four cancer.
He had to stop working but saved money to buy his new wife the gift.
Moments before the ceremony, Morgan told Nicola’s best friend to present her with a watch as a lasting memory of their special day – a gift particularly poignant to him. He died just five months later. “We tried to make it a really positive day and we hoped we could beat [the cancer],” she said.
“He loved watches, they were his thing, but I had never had a good one so he did all he could to get me that watch and I was really happy.
“I’m just hoping and praying I can get it back.”
The watch has now been discontinued but originally sold for around £2,000.
Nicola has put up a £1,000 reward in a bid to get it back and hopes Glaswegians will help in her search.
The jewellers have apologised to Nicola, whose watch is among a parcel of items which have vanished, and the regional sales director is due to travel to Glasgow this week to handle the search personally.
He told the Evening Times: “We’re highly embarrassed that this has happened. We understand that this is a very precious item and it’s not the sort of thing that ever happens in this industry.
“We’re doing everything we can to try and discover what happened to the watch and we’re in discussions with police to get their help in investigating the matter. We’re absolutely open to the fact that this watch may have been stolen so we’re trying to backtrack to determine where it could have gone.”
The firm asked the public to be careful of anyone attempting to sell a watch matching Nicola’s.