A YORK man was stunned when a postcard dropped through his letterbox which he had sent from the Yorkshire Dales nine months previously.

David Maughan sent the postcard to his family in Dunnington from the Dales town of Hawes in April last year. He was just over halfway through a 200-mile sponsored walk along the North of England Way.

The tardy card eventually turned up in Dunnington a few days ago, much to the Maughans' amusement.

David said: "I posted the card in Hawes to my family on April 17, 2000, and to our surprise it arrived on Friday, January 12, 2001 - some nine months later.

"It took me seven days to walk the 115 miles from Hawes to Scarborough and then an hour's drive back to York, but it took the Post Office nine months to deliver the postcard. I should have taken it myself."

David's epic journey along the North of England Way, in aid of the St Leonard's Hospice Appeal 2000, took 14 days.

His mammoth effort ended up raising £2,275 for the hospice and David suggested the Royal Mail makes a donation to the charity as compensation for the late arrival of the postcard.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "The fact that there is only one postmark (on the postcard), and that's a recent one, means that it's very difficult for us to say what has happened. But if it really has taken that long to be delivered, then we can only apologise. Instances such as these are very rare."

He added that Royal Mail deals with 80 million items of mail a day nationally.

It delivers nine out of ten first-class items on the first working day after they were sent and a similar figure of second-class items within three working days.

Updated: 10:16 Saturday, January 20, 2001