Blind Jamie in despair again after trike is stolen (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Blind Jamie in despair again after trike is stolen

5:00am Saturday 1st November 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(3)

A disabled teenager has been left devastated after her specialised tricycle was stolen for a second time.

Jamie Dee Lowbridge was overjoyed when well-wisher Christine Bacon replaced her Pashley Picalord machine after seeing the teenager’s loss in the Telegraph & Argus.

But the partially-sighted 18-year-old’s heart has been broken again after thieves stole her replacement bike from outside her home in Harbour Road, Wibsey.

Her dad, Andrew Myers, said: “Jamie was upset enough last time but this time it’s more of a wound because it was donated after the last tricycle was stolen.”

Jamie, who suffers from optic nerve dysplasia and is registered blind, is unable to ride a two-wheeled bike.

But thanks to a family friend in 2000, she acquired a special three-wheeled bike, allowing her to enjoy trips with her dad along the Spen Valley Greenway.

But, in September 2006, the bike, which had been chained to their garden wall, was stolen and later found wrecked.

Jamie’s despair soon turned to joy when kind-hearted Mrs Bacon, of Low Moor, gave her disabled daughter Danielle’s tricycle to Jamie, which she no longer needed.

Since then Jamie, now a first year psychology student at the University of Huddersfield, has ridden it whenever possible.

But, when it was taken during a weekend she was at home, she said: “We just want to find out where it is. Recently I haven’t been able to ride it as much because I have been at university, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy riding it any less.

“I rode around during the summer but obviously with the colder weather it wasn’t always possible.”

The theft was discovered after Jamie and her dad had been to a medical appointment in Huddersfield. Mr Myers said: “I got in a quarter of an hour after Jamie and I was greeted by the lock for the bike left on the side-doorstep.

“We left the bike tied to the wall in the garden with a bicycle lock.

“We would have kept it in the garage but that was torn down earlier this year.

“Jamie really is upset and we just want to find out where it is.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman appealed for information and said inquiries were continuing.

She said: “The suspects are believed to be two white males aged approximately 14.”

Anyone with information has been asked to contact Wibsey Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0845 6060606.

e-mail: james.rush @telegraphandargus.co.uk

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(3)