A SEVERELY-ill little boy had his scooter stolen while he was having emergency hospital treatment.

Thieves waited until Daniel Hilton, seven, and his family were out before taking his prized possession.

The youngster is blind and suffers from Joubert syndrome, a condition which affects the brain and causes a loss of balance.

He could not speak until he was four-years-old, and couldn’t walk until about six months after that.

His mum, Andrina Hilton, 36, said: “There’s not many things he can do which we can all do as a family, but he can scoot along with my daughter and we hold him on it.

“It’s another thing in life that’s been taken away from him.”

The scooter had been left in the back garden in Park Gardens, Hockley, as they had no time to pack it away when Daniel was being transferred to Adden-brooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, at short notice.

He had to be kept in for two weeks because of an ear infection which spread to the mastoid bone in his skull, which had to be removed.

He then suffered a blood clot and had to be put on a blood thinning drug, as well as having a drip at home.

His mother, who works from home as a child minder, said the theft was the last thing the family needed.

She said: “It’s so frustrating because the scooter was only stolen because we weren’t here – and it wasn’t as if we were going on holiday for a jolly up. My son had to be taken to hospital.

“I thought perhaps if we talk to the Echo someone might know something or sombody might feel guilty.”

Because of the surgery, Daniel, who goes to Kingsdown School, in Southend, will also have to give up his only other passion, swimming, for nine months.

He has to wait for another operation until he can get back into the water.

His sister Remy, ten, is also upset because the thieves took a purple and white Storm Falcon bike she had been given as a Christmas present.

The family want to hear from anyone who saw anything between Wednesday, May 2, and lunch-time the following Sunday, or anyone who has been offered either the bike or a black micro scooter. Call police on 101.