Kind couple splash out on swim team
THEY PAY FOR DOWNS SWIMMERS’ MEAL AHEAD OF EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
A GROUP of swimmers with Down’s syndrome were left blown away by a random act of kindness when a mystery couple paid for their meal.
Hannah Payton, 21, from Swinton, was one of a group of around seven swimmers from her club who had travelled to Southampton for the Down’s Syndrome European Swimming Championships.
Along with her seven team-mates and four coaches, she was dining in the restaurant at her hotel in the city.
And they were left stunned when they came to pay, they were told their bill had already been settled.
It is believed a couple - thought to come from America - asked staff at the Novotel in Southampton if they could settle the bill on their behalf, believed to have run to a couple of hundred pounds.
Coach David Johnson tweeted afterwards: “Sat in #Novotel Southampton had a fantastic meal with all our athletes before #DSSF2018 on Saturday.
“To top it all a very generous couple from America kindly paid for all our meals. The generosity of some people is truly amazing. A big thank you from us all.”
Hannah is part of the Cheshire Penguins Swimming Club and has competed for them, for the North West and also for Great Britain at competitions across the country, including the Special Olympics, in all the different swimming strokes, since a youngster. Her mum, Jutta, said the gesture to pay the meal bill had ‘warmed her heart,’ and that of her daughter and her friends. Jutta, 51, said: “It’s just such a lovely thing to do. We’d all been asked to give them £50 to pay for food and drink and would have paid for it themselves. “They couldn’t believe it when the waiter said the bill had already been paid. All we know is it was a couple, they were American, maybe they were on a cruise or something like that? But it just really warms your heart. Hannah will have been made up as they all will have been.” David Johnson