“You don’t know know what’s going on or if you will be hurt. You just see their eyes and hear them shouting at you, swearing and threatening you and then you see the knife.

“It’s finished in seconds but it takes months and months to get over.”

These are the words of Julie, a 36-year-old mum-of-three from Latchford who was working in the Co-Op on Knutsford Road, Grappenhall, on the two occasions it has been robbed by knife-wielding thugs.

Here she speaks to the Warrington Guardian about the impact the robberies have had on her life following the latest incident on Saturday night.

"The time just before Christmas there were two of them and they started screaming to open the till – then I saw the knife by the side of me.

I was quite calm. I opened the till and then went to get help. The other man was threatening my friend that he would slit her throat as she couldn’t open her till.

You can hear the threats and the swearing and it seemed to last forever.

I was off with stress over Christmas – I tried to go back to work but I fell apart. Just seeing the till and touching it brought it all back but I returned to work and now it’s happened again.

I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this one. I’ve not been right since the last time.

Just watching people on bikes brings it back – I can’t walk down the street without wondering if that’s them.

As soon as it’s dark I feel terrified – the slightest noise makes me jump a mile and I’m having trouble sleeping. The nightmares are unbelievable. I’m going to have to leave work or get a day job as I don’t think I can go through this again. I couldn’t put my family through it.

My eight-year-old son was sobbing when he found out and would be devastated if he thought I was doing night work again.

I think people target shops like this because they know it’s women and students – vulnerable people – who are working there trying to scrape a living.

I phoned the other Co-Op when I heard they were robbed on Thursday and I got off the phone in tears because I knew it would happen to us. Shortly afterwards the three of them came in, then I saw the knife and he held it up as if he meant business.

It was over in seconds. All the shouting and screaming to open the tills. I pressed the panic buttons and we shut ourselves in the back and watched them on the CCTV. I phoned the police and they were there in about five minutes.

When I heard they had gone off on push bikes I was in an absolute rage. I grabbed my car keys and went looking for them. I would have hit them with the car had I seen them.

They just don’t realise the effect it has on people. Me and my family won’t get over this. I’m becoming withdrawn and I feel really alone this time.

They won’t realise until it happens to their parents or sister. It’s going to take someone being a have-a-go-hero to stop them and until that happens they are going to keep going and going.

I’ve been told I can’t get compensation unless we are physically hurt but I’ll be losing money as I’ve not been able to go back to work – they are out there buying things and I won’t be able to afford the basics because I’m too afraid to go back to work.

I would do anything to stop this from happening again.

If anybody knows who they are they have got to tell the police and stop someone else from going through what I’m going through.

I don’t think anyone realises what it’s like until it happens to them. It’s horrendous and I don’t want anyone else to feel like I do just from going to work."