I arrived at Hackbridge station in plenty of time to catch my train, with the correct change for the £5.20 parking charge. 

The parking ticket machine was out of order, so I went in to the station to find the ticket office temporarily closed. 

I went round the side to the two ticket machines, to find one of them being emptied and a pretty big queue for the only operating one. 

I knew there was no way on earth we were going to make the train as I was now running out of time. I was on my way back to my car, with a face like thunder, when the gentleman who runs the mobile coffee van asked me what was wrong. 

I explained the situation to him. He told me to give him the £5.20 and he would buy a ticket for me and put it on my car once the queue had gone.

I raced to the car to get my daughter as the train was pulling away.  The lovely gentleman went on to the platform and made sure that we both made it on to the train, safe and sound. 

I returned this evening to find the ticket in a plastic wallet to protect it from the rain, under my windscreen wiper.

What an incredible act of kindness.

I do not commute regularly from Hackbridge and do not know this man at all: it really was a genuine act of giving.

SALLY DAVIES

Carshalton-on-the-Hill

 


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