Thief tries to steal from cancer charity fund (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Thief tries to steal from Twickenham boy's cancer charity fund

6:00am Friday 8th March 2013 in News By Rachel Bishop

A callous thief has tried to steal £2,000 from a charity fund for a five-year-old boy with neuroblastoma.

Connor Whipp of Hospital Bridge Road has just finished treatment for the rare form of childhood cancer found in children up to five years of age.

Connor, dubbed Captain Connor on his Families Against Neuroblastoma (Fan) donations page, needed to raise £250,000 for relapse treatment currently unavailable in the UK.

There is currently about £200,000 in the Fan account from which the thief attempted to steal.

Connor’s mother Sarah Power, 29, said she and her partner Ricky Whipp, 29, were shocked when they heard what had happened.

Miss Power said: “I thought ‘who does that?’ It’s just shocking and lucky there are people checking because at the moment I don’t really have the time and it’s up to me to check the statements. I have just come home after a year and I don’t look into it too in-depth.

“When it’s your own child you take it very personally, especially in the area as we are quite well known. I would hate to think it was done by someone who knew us and our situation.”

Linza Corp, CEO of Families Against Neuroblastoma, rang the family to let them know what had happened and wanted to raise awareness of this type of incident, which has happened several times before.

Mrs Corp said: “Thankfully our security measures prevent anyone from taking anything from our children’s accounts but it’s still very shocking to think that there are people prepared to stoop so low as to try to steal thousands of pounds from a little boy who is fighting for a chance to live.

“What people don’t think about is how hard day to day life can be for parents like Sarah and Rik and news that someone has tried to steal from Connor’s fund can be enough to reduce you to tears on a bad day and it can take time to recover again.”

Miss Power said Connor was looking “better than ever” this week and she felt positive about his recovery so far, but did not want to jinx anything so was trying not to get too excited.

He had his first full day back at school this week, but it will be six to eight weeks until the family know if the treatment has worked.

Donate at justgiving.com/connor-whipp-appeal.