Missing - Snowdrop the dog gone from city hospital

Snowdrop the dog was on the neurosurgery ward at Royal Preston Hospital when he went missing.

He was keeping company with student Ruth Thomas, 20, who has been in an induced coma in the hospital since she was involved in a serious car crash on July 12.

Now her dad Lee has launched a Twitter appeal to find the beloved toy.

Lee, known online by his Twitter handle of Constable Chaos: "Snowdrop has gone missing from the Royal Preston Hospital .. nurses think he may have been snoozing in the sheets that got sent to laundry."

Ruth was badly injured in the smash on the A5092 near Grizebeck.

Although she has been in a medically induced coma ever since, her family say she is beginning to wake up.

Mr Thomas, a police officer, said: "She is still unconscious but is responding to a degree and will squeeze hands and move feet which doctors assure us is a very good sign."

An appeal in Ruth's name has raised thousands of pounds for the Great North Air Ambulance.