Irish singer Coleen Nolan has urged thieves who broke into her dying sister's house to return the keepsakes they stole.

The Nolans star's sibling, Bernie, is dying of cancer and recently left a hospice and returned to her home in Surrey, England to live out her final days with her husband and teenage daughter.

However, the family was dealt a further blow when burglars ransacked the property shortly before Bernie returned, stealing a car, a Tv and a watch which the singer gave to her husband, Steve Doneathy, on their wedding day.

Coleen has now issued a public plea to the culprits, urging them to return the personal items.

She tells the Daily Mirror, "I feel utterly disgusted. People who can't be bothered to get off their backside and earn stuff, but steal other people's things, make me sick. To do this to a family already on their knees is awful... It (the watch) would be a special memento for Steve to find comfort in for when she is no longer able to be with him. And now, because of some evil toerags (bad people), he doesn't have it anymore. It needs to be handed in - do the right thing, for God's sake."