AN APPEAL in The Oxford Mail and the help of a good-hearted stranger has led to Blackbird Leys resident Irma James being reunited with her purse.

The charity champion received a call from Thames Valley Police at 5.53pm on Thursday to say the purse, stolen during a distraction theft in Gloucester Green on Wednesday, had been handed in by an unnamed member of the public.

Inside, a photograph of her late husband Eli, a bus pass, a Nectar card and a key to a neighbour’s house in the Leys were all safe and sound - though £28 in cash was missing.

Mrs James, 76, who has devoted herself to fundraising for the Sailors’ Society since Eli’s death 30 years ago, had appealed in Thursday’s Oxford Mail for help following the incident.

She said: “When police rang my house I thought it was a hoax.

“I kept saying ‘There is a god after all’.

“All that mattered was Eli. I would have given a king’s ransom just to get the photo back. I walk with Eli everywhere.”

Friends, neighbours, Oxford Bus Company and Thames Valley Police officers all pitched in to support Mrs James after the incident.

Cash donations will all now be passed to the Sailors’ Society.

Mrs James said: “I have to thank whoever found the purse, and the Oxford Mail for the article. It shows what the power of the press can achieve.

“What happened will not impede the work dedicated to my sainted husband. He always said I worried too much.”