A FAMILY is appealing for the public’s help after a charity box was stolen from a beauty salon.

Sarah and Eric Brotherton, owners of Triangles Hair and Beauty, on Preston Old Road in Blackburn, were left heartbroken after a charity box, containing donations for Marie Curie, was stolen from their salon in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The break in was caught in the on the shop’s CCTV, and showed the thief smash the shop’s front door with a brick to gain entry.

He then took the charity box from the counter as well as money from the till and several hair straightener gift sets.

Mrs Brotherton said: “I just feel sick to think someone could have done this.

“I’m not bothered about the damage to the shop because it’s covered by the insurance, it’s the charity money I’m heartbroken about.

“I can’t even watch the CCTV, it’s too horrible to see someone in our shop doing something like that.

“We’ve posted the footage on Facebook and are asking people to share it and see if anyone recognises the man.”

The couple, from Ribchester and their 22-year-old daughter Sophie have been raising money for the cancer charity in memory of Mrs Brotherton’s father, who was able to die at home because of the care provided by Marie Curie nurses.

They had been offering discounted treatments in the salon in exchange for a donations to the charity box which had been in the shop since the beginning of October.

The family, who have raised more than £9,000 via a Just Giving page was hoping to reach £10,000 by Christmas.

Mrs Brotherton added: “We have been offering treatments at silly prices in exchange for donations to try and raise as much money as possible and we had been doing really well.

“I know we should have emptied the charity box every week, but I was really hopeful that we would get to our £10,000 target by Christmas and we would be able to have that moment when we counted out all the money.

The family planned to take part in several marathons over six months to raise money for the cancer charity.

Having already completed 10K run and a half marathon in Florida the family will be returning to Florida to complete two further half marathons in January.

Mrs Brotherton said: “Everything we have done has been self-funded.

“We offered the discounted treatments because we had asked so many people to donate, so we felt like we should offer something.

“I was just so determined to get to the £10,000 target by Christmas.

“We still have the Just Giving page, so any help people could give us to get to our target would be just amazing.”

A police spokesman said: “We were called to the shop at around 4am this morning as the burglar alarm was going off.

“The thief has caused around £500 of damage and stole around £900 of property as well as a charity box containing an unknown amount of money.

“Enquiries are ongoing and there is a suspect that we are looking to identify.

“He is a described as a six foot white man of stocky build.

“Anyone with any information should call 101 and quote crime number 0174 of December 11.”

To help the family reach its target visit justgiving.com/fundraising/sarah-brotherton