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Cruel thief forces Mary off the road

Ben Turner
30/12/2003

A MOTHER-OF-FOUR, crippled by osteoporosis, saw her Christmas ruined when her 'lifeline' electric wheelchair was stolen.

Mary Marsh, aged 78, was left devastated and unable to visit her family to exchange presents after she awoke on Christmas eve to find the £3,000 machine, which she has owned since 1979, missing.

Unable to walk at all without two sticks, she needs the wheelchair to get to the local shop or to visit her two daughters and two sons.

Mrs Marsh, of Albert Royds Street, Belfield, said: "It has put a lot more pressure on my daughter Patricia, who helps me with the shopping and around the house.

"The wheelchair was so important for me to get about. I feel helpless without it and it has ruined my Christmas. I haven't even been able to go and visit my family.

"If people can do this to an old woman, they will do it to anyone."

She is affected badly by osteoporosis, a disease which makes bones prone to fracture, and says both her legs have 'pretty much gone'.

"It is extremely difficult just getting in and out of a car but I don't know whether we can afford to get a new wheelchair because it would mean taking the money out of my mobility allowance."

She stopped paying the £45-a-month insurance costs a couple of years ago.

Thieves had already failed twice in the last 18 months to take the wheelchair. On those occasions they dragged it from Mrs Marsh's shed and out through the back gate.

Her husband, Thomas, who also requires a walking stick, believes the same people are responsible for all three attempts and used a van this time to transport the wheelchair.

"We would just like to see it brought back, but I hope if the police find out who did this, they are punished," he said.