A fundraiser has been launched to buy a new bike for a distraught midwife who had hers stolen outside a pub in Barnsbury.

The 27-year-old NHS employee, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, relied on her new bike for her one-hour round trip to work and back.

But on Tuesday evening last week a teenage boy snatched her wheels from outside The Hemingford Arms pub in Hemingford Road, where she was relaxing after a shift at Homerton Hospital.

The bike, which she had bought only a couple of months ago, was locked, but the lock had been broken by the thief.

Her boyfriend, who was chased by the thief and his friends the next day after spotting them on the bike, said she was distraught – but donations from strangers to a crowdfunding page had helped “restore her faith in humanity”.

He told the Gazette: “It’s absolutely horrible what happened. It’s really, really affected her. We live not far from there and I have seen the kid who stole it four or five times since.

“Fifteen minutes before it happened a guy tried to snatch my phone and the next day I was in Offord Road and I saw the kid riding the bike. I knew it was the same bike because the pannier rack is slanted, it’s not straight.

“I went towards him to get the bike and he peddled off. Six of his mates then sprinted out after me shouting at me. I had to run down to the Co-Op on Caledonian Road and call the police.

“It makes you lose faith in humanity a little bit. But she feels a lot better for all the people contributing, people we don’t know.

“At the end of the day no one has been hurt, but it’s not a nice feeling. She needs the bike for work, and at the moment she’s using mine and I haven’t got one.”

The appeal has raised £132 of the £200 target. To donate, visit bit.ly/midwifebike.