A family has been left devastated after a memorial bike for their daughter who died 10 years ago was stolen from their driveway.

Nicola Chapman died in a tragic car accident when she was just 20-years-old and as a lover of motorbikes, her family decorated her motorbike in tribute to her.

Inscribed on the back is the message “In loving memory of our Nix my baby”, the nickname her family affectionately used for her.

Nicola’s father Tim and her boyfriend spent six months and hundreds of pounds customising the bike in Nicola’s memory.

But the bike was stolen in the middle of the night by heartless thieves who had to break a steering lock to snatch the bike from the family’s drive in Calmoor.

Nicola’s mother Sandra, said she was shocked by the theft: “She had a motorbike that she called my baby which she absolutely adored.

“We feel absolutely broken – It is like I have lost her all over again.

“I feel completely numb and I can’t really function – it’s like I have got a lead weight around my neck.

“It is obvious that the bike has some sentimental value – what gives these people the right to rip something like this out of our lives?”

Daily Echo:

Mrs Chapman, 55, and her husband Tim, 56, were alerted when a neighbour called them saying they thought they had seen someone wheeling the bike down the road just after midnight last Thursday.

Nicola’s memorial bike is a black CBR 400 N29 with the registration J427 LPX.

Anyone with any information about the bike can contact police on 101.