VITAL GCSE examination documents have been lost in the post, claim a York couple.

Lewis and Elizabeth Drew said they had been suffering constant difficulties with lost mail to their home in the Acomb area since January this year.

The Post Office says as far as it is aware all the couple's mail has been delivered - but it has launched an investigation of every stage of its deliveries to the Drews in an effort to iron out the problem. Mr Drew, a GCSE chemistry examiner, said the GCSE marking papers had gone missing in the mail last month, but fortunately there were no examination papers lost.

"There is no way this can have affected anyone's grade, and I know of other incidents where examination documents have gone missing in the post, but I still feel it is a problem.

"I had to go back to the examination board and get the papers again myself, I felt if I had left it to the Royal Mail there would have just been too much of a delay."

The couple said other documents which had gone missing in the mail included credit card statements, personal letters, and even letters from Royal Mail and mail watchdog Postwatch discussing the problems. Mrs Drew, 57, said: "I thought it was quite funny and ironic, that the Royal Mail letters have gone missing. But we have had so many letters go missing now, it really is past a joke."

Mrs Drew has suffered a stroke, paralysing the left side of her body which she feels makes the situation more upsetting.

"We have had friends thinking my situation has got much worse, even that I had died, because of our losing touch through mail not being delivered." A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "We are sorry to hear this customer has some concerns about her mail."

The spokeswoman said that as far as the Post Office was aware, all the Drews' mail had been delivered to their property.

"However we have agreed with the customer that, given her concerns, we will monitor all the mail to her property for a period of time and report back to the customer."

Updated: 08:35 Tuesday, July 29, 2003