"The burglars won't win" says Sheffield woman who lost husband on dream holiday

June Lowe, 59, from Stradbroke Road in Sheffield was out visiting family on January 3 when thieves struck at the bungalow she’d bought with her late husband David in 2009.

Thieves clambered over a neighbour’s fence, broke the pane in her kitchen back door and ransacked her home looking for valuables - even smashing their way into June’s carport-cum-makeshift study. They eventually discovered all her jewellery wrapped in towels in a bedroom cabinet.

“It’s not all of enormous value, around £5,000 worth," says June, "but some of it Dave bought me over the years. There was a pair of David's diamond studded earrings when it was fashionable for men to wear earrings in the 90s, so it’s priceless to me.

"These awful events took me back to the day my world shattered into a million pieces never to be complete again."

June says the burglary ‘didn’t register’, when she walked into the bungalow and then says, ‘I just burst into tears and scanned every room for where they’d been, worried that they’d damaged Dave’s ‘Blue Room’ which is a dining room decked out in blue and white, a shrine to Dave’s other passion, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.

"He was a mad keen Owls fan," as she shows me pictures of Dave with ex-team boss Carlos Carvalhal’ and other pictures of him in team colours.

Dave tragically lost his life during a trip, with June, to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in November 2016. ‘We went there to celebrate Dave’s 60th birthday and to visit Dave’s family from Sheffield, who emigrated under the ‘ten-pound pom’ scheme in the 70s.

"Dave was a keen scuba diver and had all the gear. It was a glorious spot at Port Douglas on North Queensland, and I was up on the top deck of the dive boat when Dave suffered a massive heart attack under water. Rescuers found him on the bottom with his oxygen mouthpiece out," June recalls.

Despite attempts to save him, Dave was pronounced dead at the scene and June later learned from the coroner that he’d got Ischaemic heart disease, a narrowing of the coronary arteries which supply blood to the heart, unbeknownst to him.

‘Dave was a hard worker and always complained about little aches and pains caused by rheumatoid arthritis which he had from working as a furnace brick layer for many years’. Dave’s story received global media attention at the time.

Dealing with Dave’s death and the subsequent days and months that passed led to June eventually being diagnosed with PTSD- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I’d end up in a crying mess banging my head with my hand like a child - and this burglary brought that all back in a second," she said.

"But they’re not going to win, I’m an Attercliffe lass and we’re made of the same steel that made this City. They didn’t know it was my house or anything about Dave or how he died. It was probably for drugs and they took a chance and got away with it’.

June says she was too traumatised to deal with police officers or give a coherent statement when they came and they promised to come back.

"It’s now been eight days and I’ve heard nothing yet," she added.

South Yorkshire Police, in a statement to The Star, said: “We aim to provide a high level of victim care following incidents, including burglary that we know can be traumatic and distressful for victims. On 3 January officers attended reports of a burglary on Stradbroke Road in Sheffield around 1pm. The victim was extremely shaken and officers requested she be checked over by Yorkshire Ambulance Service. Officers and the victim agreed that she could provide a statement and list of missing items at a later date. Since the incident, officers have spoken to the victim and updated her to the progress of the investigation, and are due to meet with her this week for a statement.”

There’s been an outpouring of messages of support on social media and June’s had cards and flowers from people in the local community who know her from years of working at the Stradbroke pharmacy. ‘Everybody knows me and they’ve been fantastic’, she says.

June’s kept a journal of everything that happened to her following Dave’s death in Australia. "It’s filled five diaries and I’m now planning a book about my experiences and how it changed me forever. I hope I can get it published and use it to help other people who have suffered sudden and traumatic loss in their lives. I hope that others will find the strength to carry on."