Mother speaks of despair after house burgled
Jan 21 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal
A MOTHER spoke of her despair last night after her house was burgled while she supported her 13-year-old girl through a serious operation.
Lorraine Appleby, 48, received news of the break-in while at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle with her daughter Holly who was having a cage fitted to her leg to help her to walk.
The youngster has suffered from Arthogyposis – a muscle condition which limits movement – since birth, and was undergoing an operation to change the alignment of her leg and foot.
As she comforted her daughter through the aftermath of her fourth operation, Mrs Appleby received a call to say her home on Cotfield Walk, Bensham, Gateshead, had been burgled.
She said: “I got the call while I was at the hospital and I couldn’t belive that you can’t even take your daughter in for an operation without fearing for your own house getting burgled. It’s terrible.
“I was angry but also felt sad for the guy who did it – he must have been desperate.
“I haven’t been able to tell Holly, it would upset her too much.”
Among the items stolen on Wednesday were Holly’s new camera – a Christmas present from her mum – and jewellery.
The intruder also took a pile of two pound coins Mrs Appleby and her boyfriend were saving up so they could take Holly away on holiday.
“I can’t believe someone could do that,” she said.
“They must have walked past her wheelchair and ‘get well soon’ cards. That’s what makes me think they were desperate.”
Now a pupil at Northern Counties School for the Deaf in Newcastle, Holly was born weeks premature, weighing only 1lb 11oz.
Her relatively rare condition means she sometimes uses a wheelchair and she is heavily reliant on her mum around the house.
But this operation, the latest of four on her legs and ankles will give her a new lease of life, according to her mum.
“She has been able to walk before but this will make it better for her,” Mrs Appleby added.
“It has changed the position of her foot and she should be able to get a shoe on now.
“She will have a better quality of life but it’s never going to be completely right.”
Every day for seven to nine months, Mrs Appleby – an assistant at Sunderland Road Library in Gateshead – will turn the screws in Holly’s leg cage in the hope that she might walk more freely.
But Holly, who was diagnosed as deaf at the age of four, will in all likelihood never walk completely without restriction.
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: “A 33-year-old man from the Gateshead area was arrested and charged with burglary. He remains in police custody.”
