A FRAIL pensioner who woke to find a burglar at her bedside has spoken about her terrifying ordeal.

Partially sighted and partially deaf, Doris Vickers, 87, spoke only hours after she had fallen victim to the masked raider at her home in the Mill Hill area of Blackburn.

She said: "I woke up and saw a dark figure looking in my wardrobe with a flashlight. At first I thought I was hallucinating but when I realised it was a burglar. I started shaking from head to foot.

"I seemed to freeze and the inside of my mouth went dry and my lips felt parched. I was scared to death."

She added: "I was so terrified I pretended I was asleep, but he just stood in the doorway and stared at me for about ten minutes. It felt like a lifetime."

When the burglar eventually made off with Doris's 14in Panasonic TV and radio casette player, both special presents from her family, and a sum of cash, Doris put a chair behind her bedroom door and sat on it until she thought the burglar had gone.

She said: "I sat there for a long time because I had no idea if he was out the house or not, because I'm stone deaf without my hearing aid on."

Doris rang the police and then raised the alarm by banging on her next door neighbour's wall and shouting for help. Neighbour Christine Bentham said: "We heard noises and got up to check because we thought there was a burglar in our house. Later we heard Doris banging on the wall and shouting for help. We went round to her house and later she collpased and an ambulance was called."

Doris's family are travelling from Scarborough to spend some time with the pensioner to help her recover from the shock of her ordeal.

Detectives are investigating.

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