PENSIONER Lilian Mortimore was heartbroken when the bike she had saved her pension for was stolen a week after she bought it.

Mrs Mortimore, 75, of Oaklands, Chippenham, had saved for months to buy the £200 blue and silver Classic Claude Butler.

It was stolen from the foyer of the Citizens Advice Bureau while she was in there getting some advice on housing benefit.

"It was beautiful," said Mrs Mortimore. "My bike was my life. I don't know what I am going to do without it."

She took up cycling when she was in the Land Army during the Second World War and rode from hostels to farms. She continued to cycle but she now suffers arthritis and needed a new lighter model.

She used it to cycle to town for her shopping and enjoyed the independence it gave her.

"It was wonderful. I could pedal it so easily. It was totally different from my old bike," she said.

She lost the bike last Tuesday when she stopped at the CAB and took the bike into the foyer because it was raining, but she did not lock it.

"I don't really know how long I was there, but it was quite a while," she said. She had no insurance for the bike and no way of getting a new one.

"I don't think I shall every buy another," she said. "I shall just have to go by foot."