HEROINE Kirsty Marks lost her unborn child as a result of the stress caused by Luke O’Brien’s knifepoint robbery at her Moredon workplace last May.

Kirsty, 28, was working with colleague Louise Archer at The Co-operative Food, in Moredon Road when, at 9.10pm on May 11, O’Brien jumped on the counter.

He threatened to kill them both if they did not give him all the money in the till, but Louise slammed the cash drawer shut and he made off with £666 in cash.

A shaken Kirsty, undeterred, raced after O’Brien, but lost him in the darkness.

She had no idea she was pregnant at the time.

“I lost the baby due to it,” she said. “It was due to stress. I had gone to the doctor’s a couple of weeks after and they told me I had lost it at nine weeks.”

The Co-op robbery was the crack cocaine user’s second in as many days, after taking nearly £100 from McDonald’s, in Great Western Way, in the middle of the night.

Kirsty, a mother-of-two from Southwick Avenue, Penhill, cannot explain how or why she felt the urge to chase after O’Brien.

“I was just shocked. I wanted to ask for help and try to shut the doors to be honest,” she said.

“All I remember is lots of shouting and the shininess of the blade.

“Even before he got it out, when I saw him struggling with it under his coat, I just froze.

“I just wanted to see where he had gone.”

On September 2, when O’Brien was sentenced to 13 years in prison by Judge Tim Mousley QC, the latter reserved special praise for Kirsty and Nagaraj Valliyapan, who also displayed courage at a later robbery.

At Swindon Crown Court yesterday, Kirsty received £150 from the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, under recommendation from the judge.

Kirsty, who is in the process of requesting a transfer from the Moredon branch, has struggled since the incident “I have exploded on the family,” she said.

“I have had a breakdown. Anti-depressants and the kids are the only things getting me through.

Since the robbery, Kirsty has been faced with another man in the shop who threatened her after making off with two shelves-worth of goods.

She has also asked her employer to reconsider its staffing levels after 9pm following the incident with just two colleagues in the shop.

Nagaraj was unable to attend yesterday’s ceremony, but he too will receive a certificate and cheque, after disarming O’Brien during the Juniper Stores robbery in Marigold Close.