‘Greater Manchester Police told me my husband was dead while I was sat on the 575 bus’

‘You don’t tell people like that. It was so callous’

06:27, 14 Dec 2025Updated 06:53, 14 Dec 2025

Diane Kenyon and her late husband Michael(Image: Diane Kenyon)

A grieving widow says police informed her of her husband’s death while she was sat on the bus. Diane Kenyon says she was on her way to visit her partner Michael when she got a phone call from an officer telling her he had died that morning.

Greater Manchester Police say ‘every effort’ was made to try set up a meeting so she could be informed in person. The force said only when that wasn’t possible was Mrs Kenyon told over the phone.

The couple, who had been married for nine years, lived apart but were still together. On the day of his death Mrs Kenyon had caught the 575 bus from her home in Horwich to visit him at his sheltered housing complex on the outskirts of Bolton town centre.

But earlier that morning on September 19, Mr Kenyon, a 58-year-old armed forces veteran who had lung cancer, had collapsed and died. Mrs Kenyon says police were called when he couldn’t be contacted and forced entry into his home.

The retired cleaner, 69, said: “I was sat on the bus and I got this phone call. He said it was the police and said ‘you’re not at home are you?’

“I said I was going to see my husband and he just said ‘He’s passed away’. I said ‘You what? I’m going to see him now’.

“It was horrible. You don’t tell people like that. It was so callous. My husband didn’t deserve that.”

Distraught, Mrs Kenyon says she then asked the bus driver to let her off in Bolton town centre, where the police officer she’d just spoken to picked her up and took her home. She says she’s now twice written to GMP to lodge a complaint but ‘has had nothing back’.

She added: “It was disgusting. I still cry about it now. The bus was full of people. I was going a bit batty. It was awful.”

A GMP spokesperson said: “We would like to pass on our condolences to the family of Michael Kenyon. Officers made every effort to contact Mrs Kenyon so she could be told in person of her husband’s death.

“We attended her address and, when we couldn’t locate her, phoned her to try and set up a meeting. Unfortunately, that meeting wasn’t possible and she was informed during the phone call that her husband had died.

“Officers then went to meet Mrs Kenyon, who was understandably upset, to make sure she was okay and took her home where further safeguarding measures were put in place. Mrs Kenyon has made a complaint that is being reviewed by senior officers in Bolton.”