A DEVASTATED student has issued an urgent appeal for the return of her laptop containing her dissertation after it was stolen from her car in Kidderminster.

Rhiannon Linington-Payne was visiting her boyfriend in the Spennells area of the town when thieves broke into her Mini Cooper between Sunday night (April 19) and Monday morning.

The 23-year-old, who is studying a Masters degree in Sport Biomechanics at Cardiff Metropolitan University, has been left distraught after the Macbook Air laptop on which half of her 15,000 word dissertation had been saved. Her work’s Toshiba laptop was also stolen during the theft.

To compound her misery, a blue TDK memory stick on which she had backed up her work on had been left in her laptop bag that was stolen.

Rhiannon is approaching the end of her two year masters degree and it is the culmination of her five years university studies.

Rhiannon said: “I am devastated. I was halfway through my dissertation, which was saved on my personal laptop, and it needs to be completed and handed in by September.

“If I don’t get it back I will have to start my dissertation all over again, which will be tough because I work full time and have been fitting my studies in around my job “The theft has also left me shaken up as Spennells is normally a quiet and safe area and you wouldn’t expect something like this to happen there.

“Obviously I am keen to get my laptops and my memory stick back and if they are found, it would save me having to rewrite my dissertation once again.”

Police are investigating the theft and anyone with any information is urged to call 101 and quote incident number 22DB/25853A/15.

People can also contact Rhiannon on 07960 995780 if they find her work.