THE boss of a beloved charity has spoken of her sadness at the theft of a collection box.

Val Stangoe, the chief executive of St Mary’s Hospice, spoke out after the box was stolen from the charity’s shop in Ulverston.

Mrs Stangoe said the financial impact of the box being stolen was not great but that she was saddened by the incident.

“We are in the middle of an international crisis and someone has gone and pinched a collection box,” she said.

“For someone to do this is really sad.

“It’s very rare but it has happened a few times.

“It doesn’t affect us that much financially because we would get back more money than we lost.

“So it’s just one of those things that when you think ‘really’?”

Ulverston councillor Dave Webster also condemned the theft.

He said: “It’s terrible.

“It’s awful that someone would go into a charitable premises and do steal something like this.

“Especially when it’s a charity that is so dear to people, where every penny counts.”

St Mary’s has provided care and support for people in Furness for more than 30 years.

The hospice is preparing to reopen to inpatients this April.

It was forced to close its inpatient unit due to difficulties in recruiting senior doctors.

But it is set reopen in April after the closure.

A new model which would see digital consultancies take place.

Bosses say it would secure the longer-term future of in-patient care at the facility.

This is because a bank of experienced consultants would be on hand across days, evenings and weekends to offer support.

The new model - thought to be a UK first - is said to remove the need for an on-site medical director, a post the hospice had been unable to fill.

Mrs Stangoe said conversations would be held over the phone or by Skype to ‘meet the needs’ of hospice patients, saying: "The model we are exploring brings the possibility of reopening our beds to the vast majority of those who seek our support each year."