5-year-old Theo comes to the rescue after giant giraffe goes missing from charity shop
A five-year-old boy from Exminster has come to the rescue after charity shop staff reported the theft of a giant toy giraffe from its shop window.
Little Theo heard how ‘Danny’ the giraffe was to be raffled off to raise funds at the Cancer Research UK shop in Exeter for Stand Up To Cancer, but thieves had stolen him one Saturday morning.
Theo, who attends Exminster Primary school, was so moved to help staff after his beloved grandmother Margaret died from cancer two years ago. He got in touch to donate his own special giraffe to the charity shop in Sidwell Street in Exeter city centre.
Theo’s mum Elaine explained: “My mum passed away from breast cancer on New Years Eve in 2021. She was a devoted grandmother, and her three grandsons miss her greatly.
“My eldest son had previously cut all of his long hair off in her honour and so Theo, my youngest wanted to help do something too.
“We read about the theft of a very large giraffe toy from the window of the Cancer Research UK charity shop in Exeter and how it was being used as a raffle prize to raise money for Stand Up To Cancer.
Despite a plea to the public and a request for CCTV footage on social media, no giraffe was returned, and the window stayed empty and so no more raffle tickets were sold.
“Theo decided to donate his very special large giraffe which stands at about 2m tall as a replacement so that the shop could continue with the raffle and raise more funds. He had received it as a gift a couple of years ago as we all have a fondness for giraffes in our household.”
Louise Martin, manager at the Cancer Research UK shop, said: “We are so grateful to Theo for donating his own giraffe to us, it so very kind. We are not putting it in the shop window this time, but we are still selling raffle tickets and hope that people will still want to buy them.
“It’s still baffling to us how he was stolen as he was around 5 ft 7’’ and cannot understand how Danny was carried out and on to the street without anyone noticing.
“We put out an appeal on social media and in the community here as it happened two weeks ago on Saturday morning between 9 to 10am, but we think it must have been premediated as no one had seen the giraffe on the high street, so someone may have had a car or van waiting outside and put him inside.”
In the South West, around 38,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year.* Stand Up To Cancer helps to take breakthroughs from the lab and accelerate them into new treatments that could make a real difference to people with cancer in the region and across the UK.
