To ask for random acts of kindness that you've carried out...

[IchWill]

I believe that kindness breeds kindness. I often carry out random acts of kindness, because:

1. If I'm able to, why wouldn't I?
2. The world would be a nicer place if we all helped others out more often.
3. It makes me feel good to make a positive impact on someone's life.

Most I go about and do quietly, genuinely not helping people for recognition or glory, but when I have shared one or two examples with friends, they've said I've inspired them.

Let's hear your random acts of kindness...

Lou, of course it does!

A few years ago I was waiting for a train and there was a few people around on the platform including a blind man and his guide dog. A moron started tormenting it by meowing at it and offering it a box of fries under its nose.
No one said anything and I told him to leave it alone and he started being verbally abusive etc and said he'd push me under a train. A man kindly came and stood with me and the guy stopped tormenting the dog.

My RAOK today, saw neighbour struggling to put her bins out this morning so took hers in this afternoon when I did mine. Don’t think she’ll realise it was me but I don’t mind

I was walking out of Aldi after having done a huge shop when I remembered that I had a £10 voucher off a £50 shop, had forgotten to use it and it expired that day. I went to the nearest till and offered it to the couple their who looked at me like I was shit on their shoes and refused it.

Rather humiliated, I walked out of the shop. Whilst I was in the car park feeling mortified and loading my groceries into the boot of the car, the assistant manager, who happened to be at that till, appeared beside me, told me to come back in and he would give me the £10 out of the till. Head office got a very complimentary letter about him!

My DH once did something kind, although I think he probably terrified the recipient.

He reached a flooded underpass at the same time as an older woman. DH was in walking boots, the lady in heels, so he just (without asking!) swept her into his arms and carried her through the flood.

I have pointed out that it might be better to ask first, next time!

Drove up to the end of my road. Something in the road. Pulled round the corner and went back. Small doll. Tucked doll up with friend's big ginger cat and put photo on Facebook. Immediate response. Child distraught. Parents very grateful to have doll returned.

When my DS grew out of his mid-sleeper bed I put it on Gumtree as "free if collected". a local-ish lady said she would like it and sent her husband round to collect it. We had taken it apart, so it would have fitted in a car, but when he turned up he was on a push bike - and not even an adult sized one - he'd borrowed his 12 year old daughter's bike! He said his wife was expecting him to carry the bits of bed home on the little bike, balanced across the handlebars!
So, of course I put the whole lot in my car, including the bike, and drove him home.

I live in Spain. There used to be an illegal African immigrant near my parents' home who would beg outside a supermarket. My parents grew friendly with him, and would always give him money, buy him food, etc. He was a very nice, very polite man, but hardly spoke any Spanish.

One day I was visiting my parents before Christmas and I came across him - he was looking terrible, ashen and dizzy and clearly very unwell.

So I drove him to the nearest hospital A&E and stayed with him for about 4 hours until the doctors saw him. Turns out he had an incredibly high blood pressure, and the doctors said that he was lucky to be alive. They prescribed him a medicine that would keep his blood pressure more or less in order, and I bought it for him and explained to him how it worked, and where he could get it in the future.

He was so grateful, but I just thought about his situation - being so sick in a strange country, not speaking the language, having no one to care for you - and my heart broke. It's not fair that anyone should have to live like that.

Last year in early November some thugs set fire to my daughter's front door, there was damage to the door & hallway & landing. They also smashed her sitting room windows . She was at Asda with her 10yr old. Her 17 yr old, 13 yr old & 4 yr old were in the house. 17yr old got kids out & put fire out. They had to move house & she had to spend money saved for Xmas on bond & rent for new house & moving costs. Her friends clubbed together & took presents & sweets for the kids & 2 big hampers for their Christmas dinner. She said the most important thing was everyone was safe, but the kindness of her friends moved us all to tears.

I take my bin and my neighbour's bin up to our back gates if I'm home before her. I just view it as being neighbourly.
She does the same for me if she happens to be home before me (which is rare).
It's a nice thing to do, and save us both driving around our bins onto our joining driveways.

Not massive acts of kindness but if I have a decent amount of time left on a parking ticket I give it to someone just arriving.
I also often offer to take photos for people so they can all be in the picture.
I am tall so I offer to get things down for people on supermarket shelves.

There's a couple I always do
Pay for the person behind me at the Starbucks drive through
Buy chocolate if I see emergency services filling up at the garage (the cashier gives it to them when they come in so it's anonymous)
Not really an act of kindness but I did CPR and defib on someone when I was out shopping, they had collapsed and it wasn't looking great. Went home covered in vomit and blood

Posted too soon. He survived and was gaining consciousness when the ambulance crew moved him. Stable enough that he went straight to the PCI (heart place) rather than the local a&e

Thought of one that my neighbours do
I've never put my bin out, or brought it back in. Someone does it, I have no idea who

Also my car (I worked for the ambulance service for a decade) every morning in winter was de-iced for me. I would come out at 6am to go to work expecting to scrape my car and find it already done

A man in a van asked me for directions the other day when it was absolutely pouring down. I knew it was near but not being totally familiar with the area I thought finding the postcode for his ancient sat nav would be better. Spent ages trying to keep my head dry in his passenger window looking for this bloody postcode. Found it though! He was incredibly grateful and kept apologising for getting me soaked. I said I hoped when I was lost someone would help me one day.

Every Harvest Festival we give our DC a couple of things to give when they got to the Church with they're school and we go along and watch and once all of the parents have left we unload the trolley full of food from the boot of our car we've bought for the Church to give to those in need.

I'll never forget the look on the Vicars face the first time we carried in bag after bag of food it was wonderful.

A few times I've helped people out with money for bus fares when they've been short,1 was a young couple with a baby and you could see they were struggling and the bus driver wouldn't let them stay on the bus and everyone just put they're heads down or looked out of the window untill I went and gave them the extra that they needed.The young girl looked like she was going to cry and they both gave me a big hug.

1 year whilst on holiday with 4DC myself and my DH saved a mans life,he was elderly and in a wheelchair and his so called carers(they were staff from a care home)had no idea what to do when he stopped breathing,4 times we got him breathing again and we rang the ambulance and passed on all of the info to the paramedics when they arrived and reported everything back to the care home.

I've stepped in and bought people food,given people a ticket for the car park,helped women unload they're car at supermarkets when they've been struggling with a DC or 2 and a weeks worth of shopping.
I've helped people that were struggling because of age or health to carry they're shopping to the bus stop, if we were going the same way or they were near home I've helped them carry they're shopping home.

I replaced a little girls scooter that was stolen out of the boot of her parents car the same day they'd bought it,I sent them the £50 and a birthday card for they're little girl and the Mum,Dad and they're DD were all crying when they contacted us to say Thankyou,we didn't know them but we'd heard what had happened.

I've baked hundreds of cakes for a free Church funday.

I've paid for other peoples raffle tickets,tea,coffee,cake ect at toddler groups,slimming groups ect when other women have been struggling with money.

There's lots more but one of the things I'm most proud of is helping an homeless man when I was skint myself and on my own with 4DC,he was sleeping in a door way and it was near Christmas and it was freezing,I was in town at a Christmas Carol event with my 4DC and I'd treated myself to some warm doughnuts and a hot chocolate(it was the first time I'd had anything like that in over a year,although my DC never went without)and I went upto him and wrapped the only scarf I owned around him and he woke up and I gave him the hot chocolate and the doughnuts,he thought I was going to tell him off for sleeping in the doorway and he hugged me and cried when I told him that I was sorry I'd woken him but I was worried about him being cold,I'd have given him my coat if I could but I only owned a small jean jacket.

I've performer First aid on lots of different people over the years,I always seem to be in the right place at the right time.

I love the idea of draping a scarf over someone homeless, makes me want to go out with a blanket and place it over them whilst they sleep so when they wake up they're warm with a nice fleecy blanket over them.
This thread's lovely, I can't stop coming back for more ideas

Don't like talking of my own RAOK, though I try to do one at least every day. Taking my hat off to all these kind people.

I have a fond memory of being stuck in a strange city following a work course, flat battery, pouring rain, darkness, and 80 miles from home. Sitting in a back alley panicking (these were the days before mobile phones), I saw coming towards me a motorbike gang of huge, be-leathered, tattooed blokes -a scary sight for a 23-year old on her own. One tapped on my window, and as I gingerly lowered it an inch, he said "want some help, lady?" They then pushed me down the street until my car choked into life, waved cheerfully, as did I, then roared off on their bikes into the dark and rain.

I like to make birthday boxes for friends. I'm on a low income and a lot of my friends have 21st birthdays coming up and I can't afford to get them something nice, nice but I can afford lots of little things connected to inside jokes and things that they love that not many people know about and things that say how much I love and appreciate them. Something I'm not great at verbalising.

The most recent thing was my friend and housemate was crying with the stress of one of her assignments the other night and despite being horrifically incompetent when people are upset I just sat and hugged her. Apparently I'm a good hugger because I'm solid and you can feel the strength in my arms and hugs like I'm trying to physically hold/put you together.

I don't really keep track of RAOK I do tbh. They shouldn't be tallied, just normal things that people do with a smile without agenda but with love and nothing else.

I am not sure if this counts but I am a volunteer genetic genealogist who searches for adoptees birth parents and birth parents adopted children.

I was the receiver of a RAOK
I became ill while visiting the local indoor market and needed the toilet desperately, The nearest toilet was closed.
In a panic I asked a lady who ran one of the stalls where the nearest loo was,,i explained about the one being closed.
I was panicking and must have looked distressed so she took me to the loo which was only for staff.
She saved my life. I was so grateful I went into Thorntons and bought one of those chocolate plaques and had 'Thank You' written on the front,

I try as much as I can do RAK and to "pay it forward" for kindnesses which have been done to me in the past. Though as someone else has said, surely being kind is part of the human condition?

This is such a great thread. It has cheered me up amongst all the negativity and gloom at the moment. If we all made an effort to pay it forward at least once a week, and maybe once a day, the world would be a different place.

MissingLinks - how do you go about volunteering to do that? I would love to do it!