Hugh Grant offers cash reward for blind D-Day hero Alfred Barlow's stolen war medals

Actor Hugh Grant has donated £1,000 towards a £5,000 reward for the Second World War medals that were stolen from a 95-year-old blind veteran.

The Notting Hill star made the offer on Twitter in response to ITV News Central's reporting of the theft from Alfred Barlow at a motorway service station near Walsall.

He later confirmed his contribution was a fifth of the total raised by Blind Veterans UK.

A spokesperson from Blind Veterans UK later told ITV News that total had since risen to £6,000.

Mr Barlow made a heartbreaking appeal on Thursday for the return of his medals, which went missing while the D-Day veteran was returning home to Stockport from a pilgrimage to Normandy in France.

His wife and grandson carer noticed his four medals were missing after he visited the gents' toilets at Norton Canes Services on the M6 Toll on Thursday June 8, the day of the General Election.

The four medals lost are the 1939-1945 Star, the France & Germany Star, the 1939-1945 War Medal and the Palestine Medal.

Mr Barlow, who turns 96 on Sunday, said the medals he hoped to pass on to his grandson were more than "just a piece of metal".

"It's recognition of what part I played in that invasion," he told ITV News. "I want them back - they mean so much to me."

Responding to Mr Barlow's appeal, Mr Grant pledged his reward along with an email address to be contacted - with "anonymity guaranteed" - leading to the safe return of the medals.

Anyone with any information on the medals can alternatively contact charity Blind Veterans UK on their free hotline: 0800 389 7979