You stole from this little girl

The box, thought to contain at least £50, was whipped from a Dewsbury fish and chip shop.

The cash was to go towards a treat for five-year-old Alicia Jackson, from Mirfield, who suffers from an inoperable brain tumour and has had to have costly treatment in America.

Her family mounted a fundraising campaign to help with the cost of special radiotherapy, which has since led to the tumour shrinking.

But on Tuesday teatime someone seized the box from the counter at Arnie’s fish and chips in Lees Hall Road.

Shop owner Nigel Slater, 40, said: “Whoever did this is the lowest of the low. How could they?”

Alicia’s mum, 32-year-old Danielle Jackson, condemned the theft as ‘nasty’. “They just don’t care about other people or their feelings,” she said.

Mr Slater said: “Even though fundraising has stopped, I was keeping the box there for a treat for Alicia, who is a lovely little lass. She is always smiling and no-one deserves what she has been through.

“This theft was blatant. It put me in a really bad mood.”

Mr Slater has already got a new box but has placed it under the counter. On the wall is a notice which describes the thief as a ‘scumbag’ and explains a new box is under the counter.

He will replace the stolen money himself.

Danielle, who also has one-year-old twin girls, said the outlook for Alicia was promising.

Alicia’s grandma Megan Jackson, who lives in Lees Hall Road, said: “I can’t believe anyone would do this. And it’s not long since someone stole her bike from outside my house.”

Alicia had her US treatment in February 2010. An NHS panel paid for that, flights and accommodation for her and one adult. The fundraising covered the cost of sending a second adult. Any remaining cash will go to cancer charity Candlelighters.