The treasurer of a Bradford children’s charity has spoken of her devastation after burglars broke into her home and stole vital equipment belonging to the charity, along with items of sentimental value.
Cinderella Club treasurer Susan Leeming has appealed for information after thieves smashed through the back door of her Baildon home and stole several items, including some belonging to her brother who was a club stalwart before he died from cancer last year.
Mrs Leeming had been using her late brother David Guthrie’s laptop to make a calendar of photographs taken by local children, and was printing out copies at home to sell them for the Cinderella Club.
But now the HP Pavilion laptop, which professional studio photographer Mr Guthrie got from America, has gone. So has the masterplan of the calendar, which took her two months to perfect.
The idea for the calendar was to create a memorial to Mr Guthrie for the work he had done for the charity.
“Sales were going really well, but we’ve only got a few left that I’d printed off. We’ve still got the children’s original work, but David’s laptop had all the programmes I needed to do it. We’re at a loss without it,” she said.
The thieves’ haul included another laptop belonging to the club, a Nikon D700 camera worth £1,800 that Mr Guthrie bought just before his death and a number of his lenses.
“David left me these things, so they had great sentimental value, but the laptop with the calendar is also a poignant loss. We’re trying to think up ways of recovering the calendar so we can keep selling them," said Mrs Leeming.
The Cinderella Club is Bradford's longest-serving children’s charity and has been helping disadvantaged youngsters for more than a century.
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