Plea to help find medal belonging to Joyce's late mum lost in Northampton

Eighty-four-year-old Joyce is pictured holding up a photo of her wearing the necklace she's searching for.

The 84-year-old from Far Cotton has worn her mum’s necklace around her neck for the past 20 years, to remember her.Joyce noticed the necklace was missing last month and spoke about it at her over 55 group - Cotton Go-Getters Club - among friends.

It was then one of her friends got in touch with the Chronicle & Echo to see if this newspaper could help.She said: “It was sentimental. I used to wear it instead of wearing a necklace.“My mum won four medals and she had four children. So we got a medal each.“My dad bought us all a chain for it to go on.”She described the necklace as smooth to touch around the edge, with a blue centre.

It could have the date 1924 engraved into the back as well as her mother's name, Ethel Berry or her initials EB.Joyce’s mum Ethel was given four gold medals between 1924 and 1930 for gymnastics.Joyce couldn’t remember which club her mum used to compete in but she knows it would have been local to where she lived at the time in Yorkshire - Bolton Woods.Describing her mum, Joyce sad: “She was lovely.“She was very active right up to the end, you know.”Joyce and her brother followed in the footsteps of their active mother later on.Joyce was a judo teacher and carried on until she was six months pregnant and enjoyed an active life.

The grandmother has been wearing the necklace for 20 years.

While her brother, Joyce said, was once “the fastest sprinter in Yorkshire”.Joyce has asked for the medal to be returned to the Cotton Go-Getters group which takes place on Thursdays at Delapre Community Centre in Alton Street, Main Road, if it's found nearby.

Or ward councillor for nearby Delapre and Briar Hill, Julie Davenport, can be contacted.