ANGRY pharmacy assistant Jean Winnell told this week of her disgust at the hard-hearted thief who fled with a charity box.

The charity box snatched from Hills Pharmacy in Congleton contained about £70 intended to boost a campaign run by the British Heart Foundation.

The campaign is aimed at raising money to buy high-tech defibrillator equipment for heart patients, and invited people to donate £1 for a silk rose pin buttonhole.

"We were really pleased with the way the collection had gone, and had sold 70 of the 100 roses we had,'' said Mrs Winnell, a sales assistant at Hills.

"I don't know how anyone could stoop so low as to steal a collecting box - it's disgusting.

"The money was intended for people who need it, and the British Heart Foundation does a lot of good.

"You don't expect people to do that kind of thing, and we will be keeping a close eye on our Kidney Foundation collecting box, which is also on the counter.''

The box is believed to have been stolen late in the afternoon or early evening, sometime between 4pm and 6pm, and the thief escaped without being seen.

The British Heart Foundation shop in Bridge Street raised £120 towards the defibrillator appeal by selling the silk roses, and is appealing for donations of clothes.

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