A charity collection box has been stolen from a shop run by the League of Friends of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH).

The League of Friends donation box was taken from the charity’s shop in the Outpatients of RSH some time on Wednesday night.

The collection box was later found empty in a gents’ toilets.

Lee Herkes, shops manager with the League of Friends, said: “We empty the collection boxes regularly, but there would still have been money in the box.

“It is hard to believe that someone would stoop low enough to steal a charity box from one of our shops. The money we collect goes to helping patients at RSH.”

Over the last two years, the League of Friends has gifted more than £1 million to the RSH for vital equipment, including £44,000 for two new ultrasound machines for the Shropshire Screening Programme for the early detection of aneurisms, £55, 950 for Breast screening equipment and £166,200 for a surgery trolley for the Day Surgery Unit.

The League also funded a new state-of-the-art MRI scanner after launching a £1 million appeal to fund to mark the charity’s 50th anniversary.