CRUEL thieves have stolen a Bolton woman's treasured memories.

Margaret Birch took part in a quiz night to raise cash for a ward at the Royal Bolton Hospital -- and then returned home to discover she had been burgled.

The burglars broke into her home and stole a video player that had in it a cassette containing film of her 72-year-old husband Peter before he became ill with Alzheimer's Disease.

The thieves broke into Mrs Birch's home in Crompton Way, Bolton, when she was attending a quiz night to raise funds for J2 ward at the hospital.

Mr Birch, a former magistrate, has been suffering from Alzheimer's for 14 years and is constantly cared for on the hospital ward. Today his heartbroken wife urged the thieves to return the video to her.

Mrs Birch said: "I am appealing to whoever has the tape to return it to me, by whatever means. The thieves cannot appreciate how much distress this has caused me.

"The family will never again be able to watch the wonderful footage of my husband before he became ill."

The video cassette had been left in the recorder after a visit from her grandchildren, Thomas, aged eight and six-year-old Megan.

They had asked to watch the video of their grandad filmed when he "could talk properly".

Mrs Birch said: "When I put the video on for them to watch, I thought how glad I was that I had it."

But she returned from her night out to find her house had been broken into. She did not realise the video had been stolen until the next day. The video showed her husband, former college lecturer, on various holidays.

Mrs Birch said: "He is a very clever man and the video lets us look back and see him talking away. Now he can't do anything for himself.

"It is nice to look back at a photograph and see someone, but it's not the same as a video.

"You can actually hear them speak and see their mannerisms. I am absolutely gutted."

The couple's son and daughter, Rachel and Christopher, were also very upset about the theft of the video as they struggle to remember just what their dad was like before he became ill.

Mrs Birch said: "I just want to be able to seethe video again and look back at the happy times."