A thief snatched £3,700 from a charity founder about to send the money for life-saving operations abroad.

Victim Denis Ball (pictured), founder of Ickham-Uganda, based at Ickham, near Canterbury, said he felt a man reach into his coat pocket and snatch one of two envelopes.

The 79-year-old was in One Stop Enterprises in St George’s Place, Canterbury, on Tuesday lunchtime.

He had been about to send moneygrams totalling £12,000 to fund a hole-in-the-heart operation on a 17-year-old girl and a kidney operation for a middle-aged man. Both live in Uganda.

Mr Ball said: "I just felt the man reach into my pocket and then whoosh, he was gone."

The thief escaped in a waiting car and Mr Ball believes he had been followed from the bank where he withdrew the cash.

For the full story, see this week's Kentish Gazette.