What's the kindest thing a stranger has done for you?

I was shopping in a busy shopping centre once alone, suddenly I went all clammy and dizzy, was still far from a bench and knew I wouldn't make it so just sort of collapsed on the floor near the steps leaning against this glass window, bags all sprawed out. Most people just stared but after about 2 minutes a woman came over and asked if I was ok and I said no, I felt like I was going to pass out. She ran into Boots opposite, got me a drink and obviously spoke to a member of staff as she sat with me and 5 minutes later, security brought a wheelchair down. I don't drive so security wanted to call someone for me, but the lady insisted she looked after me. She wheeled me up to the food court, bought me a jacket potato and made sure I was OK. I felt better after about an hour, she wouldn't take any money, nothing, just said she was glad to help and off she went! I was so thankful.

Also thankful to the people that called an ambulance when I had a seizure at a bus stop. I didn't know I had epilepsy at the time. They weren't about when I came around but glad someone helped me.

When I was at the bus stop in the dark and pouring rain at about 6am, a man I didn't know came up to me and got right up in my face and asked what day it was, I told him it was Friday, and if he wouldn't mind just stepping back a bit. Well this just set him off, he kicked right off, starting screaming at me, I walked away about 20 feet, terrified, but needing to be near the bus stop and not wanting to walk off in case he might follow me, when a white van drove past, the two chaps in it saw this man kicking off at me, promptly got out, told him to do one and waited with me until my bus came. I was so completely grateful.

The lovely lady who let us use her pub's loo, even though they were just about to close. This was about 1.30am and my uni society had been on a trip when our bus broke down. After three hours waiting, a few of us needed the loo. Walked around to find this very empty, dodgy-looking pub with pretty grim, but usable toilets. Thank you, lovely lady, we also managed to warm up a bit after having been outside on the pavement for all that time.

The man who gave me £5 for fundraising, even though he only spent £1 at my stall.

This is going to sound melodramatic but I don't recall anyone doing any RAOK for me :(

I love doing ROAK though. When I was working as a Junior Dr we had an insanely busy night shift, lots of sick people. I was asked to take a look at a chap who was unfortunately clearly dying. After doing all what was medically necessary I asked the staff to call his family. He didn't have any. I could tell the end was near so I stayed with him and held his hand as he died.

I had an operation this week and felt awful after it. The lady next to me went down to theatre after I did and had a panic attack when she came back. Even though I could barely move I got up and sat next to her bed and held her hand whilst she calmed down.

I love helping people, even when it's the smaller things, coz they are often the things that make the biggest difference.

Such a lovely thread!

When I was 19, I suffered my first bout of depression & the medication prescribed didn't work - I was one of the unfortunate ones for who they caused suicidal thoughts. I was at uni & on nights out I would drink too much to escape my own head and would end up breaking down almost every time. On a work night out, a colleague did aomethjng for me that hardly anyone else had done - she listened. Didn't try to advise, to 'fix' me or ignore me, she just listened to me and afterwards made a point of checking to see how I was. It meant such a lot to me at such a bad time, we became very close & 12 years later she is still my best friend.

In terms of paying it back, I try to do the littlest things for anyone I can - giving a kid an extra 20p so he can buy the extra sweetie, seeing a child have a tantrum in the street because he dropped his sweets and handing over the chocolate my DD wasn't fussed about (that was today) but my face wasn't for a stranger. DH's eldest nephew (through marriage, BIL isn't his biological father) had been thrown out of home at 16 & we were worried sick about him. We'd talked about this for ages because of his home life but once he was chucked out, I asked him if he wanted to come & live with us, study at the local college and we'd see him through it (we live at opposite ends of the country). He didn't take us up on the offer, but his reply made me cry: 'you've made me believe that some of my family do care about me'

When my daughter threw up all over herself on the way to our camping holidays last summer and we pulled up on the side of the road in some village which was the first place we could stop coming off the fast road, a very kind man spotted us and invited us into his house so we could clean her and her seat properly. He even offered a cup of tea, which we declined, as we still had a long way to go, but were really impressed and grateful.

I had a MC last year but it was a MMC and needed to shave surgery. I had a meltdown (full blown sobbing) in school playground the morning of the surgery as my friend who was meant to drive me there and stay with me for the day called to cancel last minute. DH couldn't come as he had university final exams :-(

A mum of a girl (who I never really spoke to) in DS class saw me sobbing (along with rest of school), asked what was wrong, and when I told her phoned her boss then and there and said she wouldn't be in that day due to an emergency and to deduct it from her holiday and took me to hospital and waited with me all day till DH could get me.

We're now very good friends. Amazing how kind a stranger can be x

What a wonderful thread to revisit on New Year's Eve!!
A few years ago I realised I had left my mobile phone on a park bench. I got a doubly sinking feeling when I remembered that a group of "yoofs" had been hanging around nearby, who had no doubt spotted it and were already hawking it for quick cash. When I got home I was just about to phone the mobile company to register the loss when I noticed I had a new answerphone message. The message was from a young lad who stated that he had picked up my phone, and handed it in to the police station (at least a mile away from where I had lost it). He must have dialled 'home' to let me know. He didn't leave his name and the staff at the police station said he declined to leave his name or address. That certainly changed my opinion on youngsters today...
...another time, my car got stuck on an icy hill in a country lane. A man stopped by and tried to help but couldn't do it on his own. He drove off 'to get help' but after about 30 minutes I assumed he just buggered off. Then, when I'd given up hope, he appeared at the top of the hill with two other men. One of them, by pure coincidence happened to be my best friend's DH!! They managed to get me moving and I couldn't stop to thank them for risk of getting stuck again! A couple of weeks later, my initial rescuer turned up at my front door, randomly, as a package courier. I tried to invite him in for a cuppa to thank him but he was on the clock for deliveries.
My RAOK wasn't a solo effort, but mushroomed into a great gesture by many good folk. I learned that a local, impoverished dressmaker in the community where I lived had been burgled and, due to her poverty, had not been able to pay her home insurance that year.
I rallied the good people nearby to help me raise some money to help her, and in less than a week I was able to present to her, on all our behalfs,£400. Her tears of joy will remain with me forever.

When I was at A & E at Southend hospital and my mum collapsed in the waiting area with a (second) major bleed and the other would be patients were there to help me catch her and call for help faster than any of the wonderful drs and nurses..was one of the longest few minutes of my life whilst they were saving her and I have rarely felt more surrounded by compassion and support than in that coldly lit room of strangers.

A family took me into their home after aged 17 I crashed my car into a lamp post after sliding on ice on a country lane heading home from my horses. They took a shaking me in to make calls to recovery and my mum then looked after me until the recovery driver arrived. The recovery driver took pity on me when I was worrying about seeing to my horses while my car was fixed and how I would get myself sorted for an important competition the next day (I was riding professionally at that point). Hire car was part of the recovery plan I had but normally at 17 I wouldn't be able to get a hire car. The lovely recovery driver phoned around until he found one for me and then after driving my crashed car home took me on to an airport 40 odd miles away in another city to pick up hire car. I had never driven on a motorway before so he escorted me all the way home as I drove the hire car. So much more then his on discription!
When I very badly broke my leg in a riding accident 2 years ago my whole village came out to help me, there was a cooking rota going on, people looked after my children, lent equipment to help as was wheelchair bound and couldn't get upstairs to the bathroom once I was out of hospital. I did know lots of the people involved as we are a close community but still, they did so, so much and there where some I had never had any contact with before. I have no idea how we would have got through without the help.

There have been so many raoc towards me over the years, some from people I know, some from strangers, little or large they are all amazing.

I pay forward when ever I can, lots of little things. I have no cash to give but I try to give as much thought and time as possible.
I don't think of this as a raoc really but reading the thread made me think of it.
A few years ago a man who lived in the cottages next to the community shop I work at had a fall at his forint door, somebody called to me in the shop to say he had fallen and I dashed out leaving the shop with a customer (benefit of village run shop, almost everybody knows the behind the counter basics) and along with another villager helped him up and into his house. He was adamant that he was okay so I left him with everything he might need including the phone in reach of his chair. He called me in the shop not a half hour later so I ran round and he looked very ill, ambulance was called.
He never got home again. He spent his last weeks in hospital and I visited when I could as his family where a distance away and to be honest not very nice. Even though he was in his 90's I was very upset when he died and went to his funeral. It's been 4 years and I still miss our conversations in the shop.

This thread is wonderful and really restores my faith in humanity. One thing that springs to mind is the support I got on here when I was pregnant. It was my first baby and was absolutely depressed, terrified and on bad days suicidal ( after baby was born ). It seemed everyone around me was telling me horror stories, and on ex friend told me it was 'hell' and didn't know how I'd cope with a 'fussy' baby.

I came on here in a mess, saying I was going to run away once baby was here. Hand him over to OH and jump on a National Express so we here random Eastenders style! ( I laugh at this now ). Anyway, I was so scared of getting flamed, but I was greeted with kindness, and sympathy. It made the rest of the pregnancy that bit easier as I could read the comments again.

Now my son is 9 months old, and it has been absolutely wonderful. I am still angry about all the horrible negative stuff I was told, which hugely outweighed the positive . It affected my pregnancy and I spent the precious newborn stage worrying about all these supposed things that would happen to me.

If someone I know is pregnant, I make sure to tell them to take 'advice' with a pinch of salt, and that it can actually be fun being a parent. Which is my experience.

So thank you MN, you helped me more than you know!

I was eating in a brasserie last week, alone, with my 1 year old twins. It wasn't going well and I was probably making it look harder than I usually do! One twin was constantly climbing out of the highchair, the other was throwing his food around. We eat out a lot and it normally goes quite well - this occasion was exceptionally bad!

Anyway just out of nowhere, as I was wiping up the mess at the end, a lady came up to me and said she had been watching me and she thought I was an amazing mum and told me to accept a gift of a box of macaroons she had just bought at the counter.

I was so choked up I couldn't say anything except thank you and then she walked off.

I wish I could find her and let her know how much it meant to me to hear that. I was having a really bad day and she completely turned it around for me. Plus, as a mum of twins, you ALWAYS feel like you are the world's shittest mum for a whole heap of reasons, so it really means SO much to be told you're doing a good job.

How lovely these are!

The community midwife who helped us after DD1 was stillborn. Came round heaps of times to look after us, changed our GP to a sympathetic one, got DH an appt with her for anti-depressants, told us stories about how she felt when her dad died and how she coped. She then did house visits all through my next (v stressful) pregnancy and was so so incredibly kind. I'm newly pregnant again and when I went to see her she was so pleased for me. I luffs her.

Ones I've done: a couple of years ago a car broke down outside our house on about 29 Dec. Horrible night, pitch dark and sleety, and we live on a very rural road with no other houses nearby. The old lady came to the door to ask where they were so they could give the address to the recovery people. She refused to come in and went back to the car. After about 10 minutes I went out to offer them a cup of tea and discovered that the reason they wouldn't come in was because her husband was wheelchair-bound and we had a big scaffolding up blocking a lot of the drive, and their car was now blocking ours in so there was no room to get him past. I went back inside and badgered DH (who was being weirdly shy) into going out and changing their tyre - he really didn't want to, said that the recovery people would turn up soon, but I made him. It took him absolutely ages due to the position of car to kerb - he couldn't get any purchase with the jack for a long time. We were out there for at least an hour messing about with it in the wind and sleet. I was heavily pg and just holding the torch, DH was doing all the hard work. Eventually DH got the tyre changed and the couple went on their way with many thanks - the recovery people never did show up!

A couple of days later we came home and discovered a carrier bag in the porch - the old couple had left us a thank you card and presents of perfume and aftershave. It was so sweet of them.

We also helped a girl who keeps horses in the farmer's field near us. Lying in bed one evening and saw 2 horses sans riders thundering past the window. Leaped out of bed, got dressed in a hurry and ran out, by which time they were long gone. Girl went past on another horse, bareback, 2 mins later, so we got the car and offered to help. Spent a fair amount of time looking for the horses, eventually found them and helped the girl herd them into a disused stableyard. Drove back and picked her friend up to take headcollars so she could lead them home.

When DS1 was 3, we were in Sainsbury's and I'd let him sit in the trolley -- one of the smaller ones, that are quite tall. While I was getting something off a shelf, he stood up in the trolley.

I have no idea why, but I just didn't register that he was now standing up, dangerously unsupported in the tall trolley. I remember saying, "Let's get some chicken," and pushed the trolley handle to swing it towards the right shelf... And he went flying out of the trolley and landed flat on his back on the floor. Everything went in slow-motion, and I can still remember his eyes widening as the back of his head hit the ground. :(

He was screaming, I was crying, and I just held him on my lap and hugged him. I was really useless, went to pieces. Didn't know what to do.

Suddenly a woman appeared out of nowhere, took him from me, talked to him, walked him up and down and comforted him. I remember her rubbing rubbing rubbing the back of his head where he'd hit it. Eventually she gave him back to me, told me to take him to A&E for a check up, but that he'd be fine.

When we got to A&E, they couldn't find a single mark, bruise or bump on the back of his head - even though he'd fallen about 4 feet down onto the hard floor.

BUT... On the way out of Sainsbury's, something on the floor caught my eye and I stopped to pick it up. It was a tiny lead coin with an imprint of an angel on it.

I had it cast into a silver pendant for his birthday, and it hangs up in his bedroom. We often talk about how everyone has a guardian angel, and how we met his that day. :)

After our fourth round of ivf the nurse who was there when I came round from sedation and I was staring mid distance saying 'please, please, please' over and over in my head. The nurse who was by my bed just reached over and squeezed my hand and then held it for a few seconds. Such a tiny thing but after weeks of feeling like all anybody cared about was my ovaries it was such a kind, warm gesture. I was so choked up I couldn't say thank you. I just nodded. She nodded back and left. So if you are out there, lovely nurse, thank you.

(I've never told anyone that before.)

not really a big thing
but i overtook a young girl walking down quite a dangerous road today- as i looked in my rear view mirror i realised that she was absolutely howling. i pulled over and got her off the road and asked if i could do anything- she had just found out that her boyfriend had killed himself yesterday i felt so awful for her- offered her a lift but she refused and just said "i want to run" poor girl. she was devastated. she thanked me for stopping though. so if any of you have a dd in buckinghamshire who lost her boyfriend today- please tell her i have been thinking about her all day!

Phew it's taken me days to finish this thread, good thread it was to :)

A few roak's:

When I was driving my dad's car up a extremely steep hill in the town I live in, I kept stalling as it had a foot break instead of a hand break. The more I stalled the worse it got, my best friend was trying to help too, lots of cars over took me a couple walking down the hill saw my distress and cheered me on from the side lines :D

Back before dh was even a friend I drove him to hospital with a suspected broken hand!

I found a wallet in the middle of the rd when stuck in traffic, it was tricky but managed to reunite it with its owner.

The person who found my silver charm bracelet (about £150 worth) lying on the garden path after the catch came loose, and attached it to my front door handle so I'd find it. And my neighbours/block mates for not removing it from the door

The man who found my DH's laptop in the gutter of our street, after I'd left it there by mistake when packing the car. He took it home, managed to log on and find out who it belonged to and phoned to say he had it safe. Probably saved my marriage as it had a huge collection of photos for his work on it. My DH went round to his place to collect it with a big M&S voucher from me.

The friend's nanny who found my 2 1/2 year old DD wandering in the local park after having been mistakenly left behind by play group staff at the end of an outing. She took care of her, called the police and waited outside my house for me.

I've just gone to the shops for food after a person I know with mental health issues just told me they hadn't eaten properly in a week. He said he'd been living off sugary coffee so I've also spent time getting info from the Internet about sugar and caffeine. I hope he feels better soon.

RAOKs caught on dash mounted cameras. The music is perfect too.

Two people who I vaguely knew and hadn't seen in years heard about my Ex dumping us without a roof or any of our belongings or access to our bank account. They contacted me through the internet, got my details and sent me money and clothes/toys for my LO.

I should so like to thank the midwife in attendance with me and dd, from royal derby hospital in May 2010. She was just saying how nice it was to finish her shift with an uncomplicated birth when I started bleeding everywhere. She stayed on an extra 2 hours to make sure I was all right - and god knows medical staff don't have short shifts to start with.
My memory is a bit foggy, after being up all night on gas and air and then blood loss so I didn't get her name properly. I wish I'd chased it up more - I asked the local midwife and health people and left a thank you of their website, but never did get her identified.

Can I please go on record as saying that our NHs medical staff are wonderful dedicated people who get a really shit deal from their bosses, the government and the media. And they're still there for us when we need them.

I fell off my bike while cycling home (the brakes came away from the frame and jammed the front wheel so I went flying over the handlebars). It was dark and I was cycling on the pavement (I know - but it was on a ring road/business park near a city so hardly any pedestrians - and thank god I was on the pavement or I'd probably have been run over). I landed flat on my face with the bike underneath me. I thought I'd broken something as my legs were in agony and I'd hit the ground with such force that my gloves had ripped. It was a busy road with lots of streetlights but I laid there for at least a few minutes getting my breath back - a woman stopped her car and made sure I was OK, and helped me ring my then boyfriend (now DH) but I couldn't get hold of him. She couldn't fit my bike in her car otherwise she'd've dropped me home. I still think about her and how she really calmed me down!