THIEVES STOLE A four-year-old cancer sufferer’s birthday presents and holiday money after breaking into his home near Manchester.

Items worth up to €20,000 were taken in the raid – including spending money for the boy’s “once in a lifetime” trip to Disneyland Paris funded by the Starlight Children’s Foundation, the BBC reports. The family’s Ford Fiesta car was also taken and later found burned out nearby.

Following the break-in in Bury, near Manchester on Monday night, police are investigating whether the family was targeted after appearing on a television documentary. The burglars stole jewellery, a bike, a television, computer consoles and games which were wrapped up for the young boy’s birthday.

Police superintendent Mark Granby told the Manchester Evening News: “What this family has been through is absolutely heartbreaking.

“This was to be the little boy’s dream holiday. While they are still able to go away their spending money has been taken away by some cruel and heartless thieves. The family’s circumstances have featured on a television documentary so we are investigating the possibility they have been deliberately targeted, which would make this an even more callous and cowardly act by the culprits.”