A HEARTBROKEN widow fears precious mementoes of her late husband have been dumped by a thief who snatched her purse.

Beverley Ward was paying a visit to Bolton's Sunday market at Ashburner Street, when her dark green leather pursewas stolen from her shoulder bag.

She thinks the thief will have thrown the purse away, along with items from her four year marriage to 54-year-old Brian.

Mrs Ward nursed her husband for several months before he died of cancer in Hope Hospital on October 8 last year.

Along with photographs of the couple, the stolen purse contained an American coin from a holiday together in California and receipts from places they visited.

But particularly important to 52-year-old Mrs Ward is a tiny pewter angel. The day her husband died she returned to her home in Swinton to find a package in the post containing the angel, which Mr Ward had arranged to be sent to her. "It was because he called me an angel when I was looking after him," said Mrs Ward.

She is now hoping someone will hand the purse into a police station so she can be reunited with her possessions before the first anniversary of her husbands death.