GCSE coursework arriving at Northampton station will be back with its owner shortly

Northampton train station staff got top marks from a schoolgirl after returning vital GCSE coursework in time for her exams.

Hana Mian's sketchbook wound up more than 50 miles away after she accidentally left it on a Northampton-bound train near her home in Solihull.

Staff found the book after checking coaches before despatching it back to the Midlands — but their efforts to ttrrack down its owner looked like drawing a blank.

Northampton's lost property clerk, Kevin Brinklow, revealed: “After calling several schools and feeling rather disheartened, I was unable to locate the girl’s school to return the lost sketchbook.

"Within a few days, though, I received an email from London Northwestern Railway customer relations which said that someone had reached out and was looking for it.

“After contacting the family, the young lady's grandfather came and collected it on behalf of his granddaughter — and even gave me a box of chocolates!

"I was as pleased as he was! He thanked me as he told me about the importance of the artwork as it was for a GCSE project. Hana also sent me a lovely email – but I was just happy to help and return it safely.”

The 15-year-old admitted she feared all her hard work had been lost forever.

She said: “I go to school near Birmingham city centre so I was worried that I might have left it on a bus or by a bench somewhere around there, in which case I would probably never have seen it again.

"I’m very lucky that it managed to make its way over to Kevin!

“The book contained all my coursework for the first project of my art GCSE, which is one of the two big projects that we have to do; I was starting to make plans to redo it all, so LNR certainly saved me a gigantic amount of work — and stress!.

“People don’t usually go to these types of lengths to help others. I’m so grateful for the team’s kindness and persistence to hunt me down!”