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‘I was absolutely gutted and destroyed’
A Nottinghamshire Doctor Who superfan has been left “absolutely devastated” after a package of “irreplaceable” memorabilia was lost in the post.
Mansfield man Jon Pertwee, who changed his surname to honour the actor who played TV’s Third Doctor, was dealt the heart-breaking news after a nail-biting weeks-long wait to find out why the delivery of memorabilia had been delayed.
Royal Mail said the situation was regrettable, but the memorabilia had “been deemed lost” and that it was now in talks with Mr Pertwee over compensation, but the Whovian says they cannot be replaced.
“I was absolutely gutted and destroyed. It beggars belief. It meant the absolute world to me and a lot of it was irreplaceable,” he said.
The package of roughly 30 items, worth around £1,000, was put together by a friend in Southampton and included a jigsaw from the 1960s, Doctor Who toys from the 1970s as well as rare vinyl.
Mr Pertwee originally amassed a “huge collection” since his childhood, the first items of which were donated by a neighbour who worked on the iconic BBC show.
However decades later it was all lost in a break-up.
“It was a whole lot of time and effort. Losing them killed me stone-dead,” he said.
“It destroyed my hope and faith in humanity. Then I met my partner who encouraged me to start again.”
Upon browsing the internet for the items he found they had tripled, and in some cases quadrupled in price.
However after turning to social media, Mr Pertwee was left shocked by the generosity of fellow Whovians.
“It’s been brilliant. People have been raiding their attics and dropped me messages saying ‘do you want this?’ They’ve been beyond amazing.
“It shows all the geeks, nerds and freaks are awesome people.”
Mr Pertwee has since got back all the original Target novel collection, as well as a life-size Dalek, however this lost package has come as a sucker punch.
“I’ve already had it taken away once, no-one’s got the right to say ‘I’ll take that away from you’,” he said.
“There’s stuff from 1965 that you’re not going to get back.
“I’ve been left absolutely devastated. I have chronic PTSD, autism and ADHD so something this small, or large, can send me in a downward spiral.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We’ve looked into this and, regrettably, the item has been deemed lost. We deliver millions of items successfully each week, but on this occasion our service fell short.
“We’ve contacted the customer to discuss compensation and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
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