Lost gran takes a 300-mile detour

OAP ended up in Scotland after a wrong turn

A PENSIONER ended up in Scotland – 300 miles from home – after taking a wrong turn on what should have been a ten-minute drive from a doctor’s appointment.

Valerie Johnson was making a regular journey from a hospital in Worcester to her home in the village of Peopleton six miles away when roadworks forced her to miss her usual turning.

As a result of the diversion, the 83-year-old found herself on the M5 and then the M6, two of the UK’s busiest motorways, where she lost track of time.

Only after travelling 300 miles, crossing the Border and running out of petrol eight hours later did Mrs Johnson come to a halt in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, 20 miles from Glasgow.

At 12.40am on Friday, a couple noticed she had stopped in her Toyota Aygo on their street in the town.

They took her in for the night before her family flew north to collect her the next day.

A police search for the grandmother had been launched down south after she had been reported missing.

Mrs Johnston’s daughter Karen Maskell, 49, said: ‘Mum’s neighbour called me to say she hadn’t come back and he was worried. I thought she must have had an accident.

‘We called the police and by the time I got to her house, they said they had spotted her car on a traffic camera at Preston at 11pm.

‘I said it couldn’t be my mum because she hates driving, she doesn’t usually drive more than three miles.

‘But it was her and she was still heading north and we had to get the Scottish police involved.’

Explaining how her mother came to stay overnight, she added: ‘The family had gone to investigate and helped push the car to the side of the road.

‘The police went round and it was my mum. She had lost all sense of time. I don’t think she had realised she was in Scotland until they told her.

‘I caught the first flight the next morning and police met me at the airport.’

Sergeant John McLeish at Larkhall police station said: ‘A local couple assisted Valerie and she informed them that she was lost.

‘The couple called the police at Larkhall who contacted West Mercia Police to inform her family.

‘They very kindly looked after the woman, ensuring that she was comfortable until her relatives arrived from England to collect her.’