A VICAR has been touched by the generosity of two good Samaritans who donated a wheelchair to replace one stolen from her church.

It is the second time St Mark's Church in North Road, Darlington, has been helped after an appeal in The Northern Echo.

Yesterday we reported that thieves had stolen a wheelchair used by elderly and handicapped parishioners at the church.

The Reverend June Robson said a Cockerton woman, who did not want to be named, contacted her yesterday after reading about the theft.

Ms Robson said: "This lady rang up to say that her mother had died last week and her father would like us to have the wheelchair, because he was very upset about ours being taken. It's a lovely gesture in their own personal grief to think of other people, and what a contrast to the people who took it."

In September a Darlington couple presented the church with a microwave oven after reading in The Northern Echo that the original had been stolen