A LANDLADY has vowed not to be beaten by thieves who broke into her pub and stole money raised for her daughter who is battling cancer.

Karen Smalley’s pub was one of three licensed premises targeted during a spate of break-ins.

Burglars got into the Spinning Jenny in Rimington Avenue, Accrington, and took £2,000 of items including alcohol, the till and cash collected for her daughter, Jessica.

The 16-year-old is fighting bone cancer and customers said they wanted to do something to help.

Karen said she had been sickened by the theft in the early hours of last Tuesday, July 2.

She said: “The regulars had said they felt helpless so wanted to do something to help Jessica.

“They had done a big collection and one customer’s daughter had done the Race For Life and handed over the cash raised for Jessica.

“Because she will have to spend a lot of time in her room while she undergoes chemotherapy, we were going to use the money to do up her bedroom.”

Karen said she would have handed over the pub’s other property if it meant the charity money was left alone.

She said: “It is sick. I would have gift-wrapped everything in the pub and given it to them if they had left the sponsor money. It is hard enough at the moment and the regulars have been so generous with their donations.”

Karen said it was the first bad thing to have happened at the pub in her five years of running it but she remained defiant and said: “This is my job and it is where I live.

“I am not going to give up now. They are not going to beat me.”

Jessica, who has just left Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School in Oswaldtwistle, was diagnosed with bone cancer in her hip five weeks ago and has been told it is treatable.

Karen said: “We wouldn’t have known but she fell over on some steps and I took her to A&E and that was when they found it.

“I think she has quite a good chance as we caught it early.

“The doctors said it is a cancer that affects people between 15 and 24 and usually it goes undetected.

“Jessica has been pretty upbeat about it, though. She has taken it better than us..”

Local band Shadow Play performed at the pub on Saturday night to raise more money for Jessica.

Also targeted in the same week were Sarwar’s Off Licence in Willows Lane, where the CCTV, cigarettes and other stock was stolen, and the Golden Cross in Oswaldtwistle, which has been closed for some time and the burglars left empty-handed.

Anyone with information can call the police on 101.