From The Citizen - Friday 3rd November 2006

Helen, Andrea & Kirsty

The family of tragic Andrea Brushneen have thrown their weight behind the campaign to save Gloucester's postal sorting office.

Andrea,31, was a post office worker before a car accident in 2004 left her in a "living coma" with severe brain damage.

Her mother, Helen Eales, and her sister, Kirsty Williams, both work for the postal service and both have worked at the Eastern Avenue depot.

Royal Mail last month announced plans to close the depot if a planning application that has been submitted for a £20 million extension of Swindon's mail centre goes through.

If it gets permission then workers from Gloucester could be out of work as early as 2008.

Mrs Eales said "I found out about the site closing on the television. I work at the weekends and the news broke during the week.

I couldn't believe it. I know the site was worth a lot of money, but never dreamt that they wouldn't open another one in one of the business parks around Gloucester.

"We are the second highest performer in the region, why would they break up a hard working team?"

A spokeswoman for the Royal Mail said: "We were very mindful of making sure our staff found out and were told by the manager. We talked to our people first before doing anything with the media

"This was applied across Gloucester, Swindon and Reading.

"We fully recognise the good work of our people in Gloucester in recent years and our proposals should in no way be seen to detract from their achievements.

"However, to maintain our excellent service standards and to continue to compete successfully in the newly opened postal market, we simply cannot stand still."