A FAMILY who began collecting donations for Clatterbridge following their son's cancer diagnosis have been left "gutted" after the pub's charity box was stolen.

Barry and Donna Taylor have owned The Royal Oak pub in Little Neston for 32 years.

Their son, Danny Taylor, 33, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2017 and is currently on a 10-year remission plan with Clatterbridge.

Speaking to the Globe, Danny said: "After I had my chemo in 2017, and started my 10-year remission plan, I said I am going to raise money for Clatterbridge over that time.

"I have a fundraising darts event coming up, but we've always had those two charity boxes on the bar."

Earlier this month, Danny noticed that one of the charity boxes had disappeared off the bar.

Danny said: "Whenever we get extra tips, say an extra 50p which would be a hassle to split between three of us, I put it in the Clatterbridge box, I turned around one day to put it in and it wasn't there."

He went through all of the pub's CCTV and found that four days prior, on Tuesday, February 28, showed an incident during which a suspect for appears to take the box from the pub.

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The CCTV footage shows Donna coming towards a man seconds after the box is placed in his jacket.

"I'm gutted. I know it's just pennies in there, and it wouldn't have been any more than £20 but that's not the point is it?" Danny added.

"If anyone knows who did it we want them to come forward and say who it is."

Barry added: "We've been here 32 years and we've never had anything like that happen.

"Clatterbridge is a great hospital and it's local to us. It's a big thing and I'm just disappointed. I would've just given him the £2 myself out my pocket.

A spokesperson for Cheshire Police said: "A report was made just after 5pm on March 10 that a charity box had been taken from a pub on Town Lane, Little Neston.

"It is believed that the incident took place on February 28 at around 9.45pm.

"A number of enquiries are underway and anyone with information is asked to report it to Cheshire Police via https://www.cheshire.police.uk/police-forces/cheshire-constabulary/areas/cheshire/about-us/about-us/provide-more-information-about-an-appeal/ quoting IML 1497149 or call 101."

Another incident

As well as this, on Saturday, March 18 at 12.30pm a driver drove into the pub's wall which is often used by pensioners and children to sit on while they wait for the bus.

Wirral Globe: The driver who hit the wall outside the pubThe driver who hit the wall outside the pub (Image: The Royal Oak, Facebook)

Barry said: "If anyone would've been sat on the wall it could've been a fatality.

"We've probably had the police here five times in 32 years so these two minor incidents are more about what it means.

"We've not been broken into or anything but we don't chain our charity boxes up because we don't feel like we have to."

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