Thieves who burgled a family home stole vital savings planned for the treatment of a sickly six-year-old girl. 

Thieves broke in to Shabnam Nazir's home and stole a safe containing more than £5,000 and Asian jewellery. 

The cash was to be used to pay for therapy for her six-year-old Amelia Qadeer who suffers with cerebral palsy and progressive intestinal failure. 

Mother Ms Nazir, who raised the cash through bag packs, sponsored walks and dinner parties, was also planning to sell the jewellery to raise more funds. 

The 34-year-old said: "I am absolutely distraught. I can't believe it. That money was for Amelia's therapy. 

"Medically, there's nothing else doctors can do, except make her comfortable. The therapy is the only thing to help my little girl. 

"It makes so much difference to her because it gives her the quality of life she deserves, by helping to relieve some of her pain. 

"These evil people have taken away my only chance to make her feel better." 

Ms Nazir takes her daughter to Glasgow three times a year for the Advanced Bio-mechanical Rehabilitation and, while there, specialists also train her to administer some of the techniques to Amelia herself. 

Ms Nazir said the burglars struck while she was at Martin House Hospice, getting support for Amelia. 

Her sister, who has moved into the house with her family to help Ms Nazir, returned home from a local mosque and spotted the intruders inside. 

She said two people fled out of the back door, while a third person, waiting in a blue BMW at the front of the house, sped off as she called police. 

The family said burglars had trashed the house, ransacked Amelia's belongings, and broken some of her specialist equipment. 

Ms Nazir said: "We all feel really unsafe now in our own home. If anybody has got any bit of information, they should realise how much this means for a girl who is suffering."