A man has been charged with stealing a cash box from a charity that helps to save seriously ill babies.

This morning Jay Mark Pemberton, 35, of Coronation Road, Chatham, was arrested and charged following an investigation into the theft at Medway Maritime Hospital.

On Friday, July 31, a cash box containing £97.50 was taken from the Making Miracles charity stall. Volunteers were selling knitted goods and collecting cash for extra equipment at the hospital’s fetal unit.

Pemberton has been released on bail to appear before magistrates on September 17.

The charity workers were left distraught when they realised a man had walked off with their cash box containing almost £100.

Making Miracles is also raising money for a baby memorial garden and it was the second setback for the charity in a month, following the vandalism of that garden in St Margaret’s Street, Rochester, also in July.

The charity spent months raising £20,000 and clearing the area to create a tranquil place for parents to mourn their loss, but yobs violently trashed the site and lit a bonfire in the grounds.

Those culprits have still not been caught.

Founder Kelly Wells, whose daughter Summer was premature with a rare heart condition, said: "It’s two awful sets of circumstances that have happened in one month, and it has left us doubly shaken.

“But we won’t be beaten, we’ll carry on.”