A devastated family say they have been unable to grieve properly because they've been denied funding for a funeral.
Tracey Polley's body has remained in a morgue fridge for nearly one month since she died of a long illness.
The 51-year-old barmaid did not have any money or insurance in place to pay for her funeral and so the responsibility instead falls with her loved ones, Grimsby Live reports.
Tracey's son Anton Smith, 27, says he was denied funding for a basic funeral because he had already spoken to funeral directors, despite not booking with them.
And the barmaid's best friend Helen Rice, 51, shared her distress.
She said: "Everyone has the right to have a proper funeral with their family and friends there. I have been her personal assistant for 11 years but I have been friends for 30 years, so it still hasn't sunk in yet.
"If I could go back to when the police asked us if we wanted to appoint a funeral director, I'd say no and let the council handle it.
"But Anton and I went to the Alexanders Funeral Care and tried to sort the cheapest funeral procedure out, but looking into her accounts we realised she didn't have anything in place to cover a funeral. It was going to cost us over £3,000, so we couldn't afford it.
"We tried sorting out the funding through the DWP, but because Anton, who is her next of kin, wasn't on benefits as he's a student, we couldn't get it.
"Then we were told to contact the council to try and get a Public Health Funeral, but they said no because we had already spoken with Alexanders. Alexanders have been absolutely brilliant, and have helped us out so much through this process, but it's still been stressful."
And now Tracey's body remains in the morgue, unable to be buried or cremated.
Helen says she and Anton have struggled to grieve the former cleaner, of Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Helen continued: "I fought her battles for years and this is my final battle for her. She deserves better. She's had a crap life and a crap death and she deserves some justice from it.
"It's not going to change anything for her, now, but I don't want anybody else going through the same situation.
"I just want an apology because it feels like they don't care. She didn't deserve to be treated this way."
Since then, the funeral directors put Anton in touch with Simplicity, a company that handles low-cost funerals which can't be attended by family and friends, as this was the only option that they could afford.
Anton, who is a student, said: "I have been speaking to Simplicity to try and get the funeral sorted. She has now been picked up by them and will be cremated this week without a service.
"After we were denied any funding from the council, we were given two options. Either give the funeral directors access to her house and accounts to try and raise funds, or go with Simplicity and get her body cremated.
"She's been through so much already that I didn't want to prolong it even further.
"But we're paying extra to get her ashes back instead of being spread on the memorial garden. She never got a chance to spread her mother's ashes back in Scotland. She's originally from there herself so I'm taking both of their ashes up here to spread them together.
"There's not much of her family left, other than myself and a few others, but I'm planning on holding a small memorial for her with any family and friends that can attend.
"The last thing you need when grieving is going through this, so if anything can be done to stop another family from going through this, it's worth it.
"I'm just happy that it is sorted now and she can be at peace, even if we cannot hold a funeral for her."
