Rochdale Observer

Passenger furious over lost travel bag

Duncan Glenday at St Chad’s

- BY SOPHIE HALLERICHA­RDS sophie.halle-richards sophiehrme­n

AWOMAN has slammed Easyjet after claims her suitcase which contained important work documents still hasn’t been found – despite going missing from Manchester Airport over three weeks ago.

Melissa Mcgrath, 45, reported the bag missing after it failed to arrive in Greece for a work trip on May 31, but says the travel company still haven’t located the suitcase.

The mum, from Rochdale, claims the contents include ‘patient’s medical records’ and says the fiasco has caused her extreme stress, even fearing she could lose her job over it.

She claims the bag has gone missing due to an ‘error’ by a member of Easyjet staff, who loaded the suitcase on to the conveyor belt without a luggage tag – meaning it’s been impossible to trace.

Despite repeated attempts to contact the airline since last month, Melissa claims nobody has been able to help her, and have only redirected her through route.

She said: “It is causing me a lot of trouble and stress. It is not about the money or the compensati­on I just need my bag. It is important.”

Melissa said when she arrived at Manchester Airport there were no check-in staff available, and passengers had to tag their own bags and place them on to the conveyor belt.

“There was one man from Easyjet who was helping put the baggage on. He sent two of my bags off and then did the third without attaching a baggage label,” she said.

“He noticed what he’d done and said he would arrange for it to be brought to the aircraft when I boarded so I could identify it. But I haven’t seen it since.

“It’s a unique bag and easy to identify as it has all my work papers in it. There are things like patient records in those files. It’s not something I can just be compensate­d for.”

Melissa said she even sent her mum to Manchester Airport in a bid to locate the missing suitcase, but after spending three hours she returned empty handed. “Easyjet just the compensati­on don’t respond. Even if you do manage to contact them if just says all lines are busy. All they say is that they have referred me to the compensati­on line.

“It’s not like it’s been lost in Uganda, the bag is clearly at Manchester Airport. Someone just needs to go through the bags and find it but nobody will help.

“I am in a lot of distress about this and I have nearly lost my job over this. There are patient medical records in those bags. It has got USB sticks in there.

“They need to be paying attention to what they are doing. I don’t want money, I just want my bag back.

“It is nothing to do with £50 compensati­on, I don’t want a single penny – some things are more valuable.”

A spokespers­on for Easyjet said: “We are very sorry for the delay in reuniting Ms Mcgrath with her with her bag and are urgently investigat­ing with our baggage handling provider in Manchester to locate the bag.

“We will be in contact with her to keep her updated and to offer a gesture of goodwill in light of the inconvenie­nce caused.”

BRITISH pianist Duncan Glenday enjoys a busy and varied performing career as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and teacher.

Since completing his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, he has performed over 300 concerts throughout the UK, including appearing at venues such as: St James’ Piccadilly, London; the Bridgewate­r Hall, Manchester; the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford; Hutcheson’s Hall, Glasgow; and at the Lowry, Salford Quays with the Northern Chamber Orchestra.

He has appeared at Festivals including the Internatio­nal Lake District Summer Music Festival, the Ryedale and Isle of

Wight Festivals, whilst in 2010 he gave a solo recital for the inaugural Geneva Internatio­nal Academy and Festival.

Duncan also collaborat­es regularly on the concert platform with singers including mezzo Kathryn Rudge (a former BBC New Generation Artist), and soprano Katherine Broderick (winner of the 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Award).

He also enjoys a successful ongoing duo partnershi­p with violinist Sophie Rosa, with whom he is currently performing a cycle of the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas, and performs regularly with Garfield Jackson, former violist of the Endellion String Quartet.

Duncan’s repertoire ranges from JS Bach to works by living composers and he has been privileged to premiere new compositio­ns by Ed Hughes (at LDSM 2014) and Stephen Montague.

He also took part in the launch of the ABRSM’S ‘Spectrum 2’ series at Wigmore Hall alongside Richard Rodney Bennett.

He has also performed over 20 concertos, including mainstream works by Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, Liszt, Brahms and Rachmanino­v, plus works by Dohnanyi, Copland and Henze with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as Nicholas Kok, En Shao, Edward Warren and Benjamin Ellin.

Duncan studied at the RNCM with Renna Kellaway and John Gough on the joint degree course with Manchester University and graduated with a first-class honours degree and Diplomas in profession­al performanc­e.

He also received inspiratio­nal lessons from visiting tutors Arnaldo Cohen and Charles Rosen.

Competitio­n successes included First Prizes in the John Ireland Competitio­n (in both Piano Solo and Song Accompanim­ent) and the Proctor-gregg Recital Prize.

In addition to his performing career, Duncan is currently a piano tutor at The University of Manchester and is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Uppermill Summer Music Festival in Saddlewort­h, which takes place this year from July 2-9.

Full details can be found on the website www.usmf.uk

 ?? ?? ● Melissa with her son, who was travelling with her
● Melissa with her son, who was travelling with her
 ?? ?? ● Duncan Glenday
● Duncan Glenday

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