'Nobody told me my mum was dead'

A man claims he wasn't told his mum had died for three days. Jamie Cloran, 35, from Monsall, went to the doctors on January 2 to get a sick note.

He said his GP asked how his mum was, saying they were worried. Jamie laughed it off, but a few minutes later received a call from Manchester coroners' office telling him his mother Joanne had died three days earlier on December 30.

The reason for the timing of the call is unclear. Joanne, 54, from Gorton, said he was told his mum stopped breathing outside a takeaway in Harpurhey.

Police said she was pronounced dead at North Manchester General Hospital. Jamie said he is angry no public body contacted him until January 2. "I'd been enjoying the new year and my mum had been lying in a morgue," he said.

The Manchester Evening News contacted Greater Manchester Police, Manchester coroners' office, the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs North Manchester General.

The M.E.N. has received conflicting information about which organisation should have initially contacted Jamie as next of kin.

He added: "All that time, I wasn't aware she had passed away. I asked the GP for a sick note and he said 'I'll bring it out to you in the waiting area'. He comes out and gives me my sick note. I walked out of the GP and as I get in the car, my phone rings.

"It was the [coroners' office]. They told me my mum had passed away. It was a total shock. They apologised it was them delivering the news. Not long after, a GMP [coroners' officer] rang and told me what had happened. They apologised."

Jamie said he would have reported his mum missing had he not been told on January 2, adding: "I'm just angry to have an apology over the phone. I was