A THIEF ruined the birthday of a Basingstoke lad battling leukaemia by stealing the teenager's brand-new bike just six hours after the youngster first rode it.

Owen Thurlby had proudly ridden the bike home from the shop at 5.30pm on his birthday last week - but by 11pm it had been taken from the garage.

Owen, 13, from Sandys Road, South Ham, told The Gazette: "I was more mad than anything."

But his mum Rosemary said he had been upset enough to shed a few tears and would not stay at home when she went to work the following day.

She said: "I don't really know what type of person does this sort of thing. They must have been watching him. To get it out of the garage you had to go in by a side door and lift it out along the driveway over our car.

"This was Owen's first new bike. He has always had second-hand ones before."

Mrs Thurlby said the family were so upset they bought him a replacement for the £200 Saracen Vice mountain bike his grandparents had bought him.

The thief struck while the family were indoors playing with Owen's computer games after it became too cold to carry on with their barbecue.

Owen's dad Martin, said: "The police came out to us very quickly. His new bike is now chained to a wall."

Owen, who goes to Brighton Hill Community School when he is well enough, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in October.

He has only just finished an intensive bout of chemotherapy and his birthday provided him with a break before the next bout.