A Bristol widow whose husband died just weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour has pleaded with thieves to return her treasured memories – photos on their stolen laptop.

Chris James was just 29 when he died from an inoperable tumour days before Christmas. His condition was only diagnosed in November after he started getting headaches.

Just a month earlier, Mr James and his newly-wed wife Angeleen Leckie-James had been burgled at their home in Redfield.

Among the items taken was a silver HP laptop, which contained all the photos taken during their four-and-a-half- year relationship.

Saved on the hard drive were pictures from their honeymoon in Ecuador and a trip around China.

The only pictures of the couple his 30-year-old widow now has left are the ones taken on their wedding day in June 2007.

Mr James started having headaches in October last year and was diagnosed with a tumour on November 5, which doctors could not operate on because of its position in his brain.

He began chemotherapy just a few weeks later but slipped into a coma and died in his sleep on December 8.

Mr James, who worked for solicitors Lyons Davidson, in Victoria Street, Bristol, had been at home taking a shower when two thieves broke in on September 3, a month before his headaches began.

Speaking about the ordeal, his widow told the Bristol Post: "He never really got over the burglary. As he came out the shower, he saw two people disappearing out the back door.

"I'm not a doctor but I'm sure it was the stress of being burgled that might have triggered his tumour. Doctors have told me tumours can lie dormant for years and can then be suddenly triggered by stress.

"I don't care about the laptop or the camera, mobile phone or iPod for that matter – they were all covered on our insurance. What I care about are the hundreds of photos stored on the computer.

"They were the only photos we had. The first present Chris bought me was a digital camera and all those photos have now gone.

"I just hope whoever now has the computer still has the pictures, even if they've deleted them they could still be on the hard drive, and that they can get those back to me.

"I've still got some pictures and those that were taken at our wedding, but there's so many that I've not got."

She added: "I'm worried I might start to forget those memories."

Mrs Leckie-James, a business analyst, hopes that whoever has the computer may not have deleted the pictures.

She said: "All I can hope now is that someone relatively normal bought the computer, not realising it was stolen, and still has our pictures on it somewhere."

The laptop was a silver HP Pavilion with the serial number (S)CNF5000XMS.

Anyone with any information about the whereabouts of the computer can contact Mrs Leckie-James on 07867 868291.