Most heart-warming stories of human kindness that h All Yule nee
STRANGER SAVES FAMILY’S HOME A ROYAL LOVE STORY BIG-HEARTED STRANGER LITTLE MR MAGIC LEGS LEFTIE SNAIL MEETS MATCH ANTI-RACIST HER
A FAMILY facing eviction over Bedroom Tax payments were saved when a stranger paid their £300 bill. Iain and Clare Duncan and daughter Abigail, 14, were minutes away from being evicted when a former teacher pulled out his wallet and settled the whole amount.
Good Samaritan Tommy Doherty, 67, was one of a handful of protestors gathered outside the Duncans’ home in Thornliebank, Glasgow, as bailiffs tried to boot them out. The family, hit by the Bedroom Tax because one of their rooms is unused, said they will “always be grateful”. WHEN an elderly woman with dementia became confused at Sainsbury’s a policeman stepped in to help. PC Dave Cant from the West Yorkshire force took the woman to here Huddersfieldudde s e d home,o e, holding her hand all the way to reassure her.
Then he unpacked her shopping and found a vase to put her flowers on display, after the incident in July. CELEBRITY marriages always hit the headlines and 2016 has seen lots of high-profile unions.
Desperate Housewives Actress Eva Longoria married her media exec husband Antonio Baston, actor Shia LaBeouf exchanged vows with Mia Goth in front of an Elvis impersonator in Vegas and tycoon Rupert Murdoch suprised everyone when he wed Jerry Hall.
But there is one wedding we’re all hoping to see next year... that of Prince Harry and Suits actress Meghan Markle.
Will the world’s most eligible singleton put a ring on Meghan’s finger? We’ll have to wait and see... CHRIS Topping was browsing in bookshop Waterstones nes when his jaw dropped. Inside the pages of a book Chris, 24, found a £5 note and a handwritten note: e: “Enjoy a cuppa on me or pass it along and give a smile to someone one else.” Chris, of Liverpool, boughtought a few homeless people sandwiches. dwiches. IT’S been a year full of death, destruction and political disaster but 2016 hasn’t been all bad – honestly.
We’ve mourned celebrities such as David Bowie and Prince, wrangles over Brexit ripped Britain apart and Donald Trump caused deep division on his way to becoming the US President-elect. But whatever is going on in the world, love endures. The past 12 months have also been full of inspirational, uplifting stories that have touched the heart.
Here are just some of the touching tales that have restored our faith in 2016, proving all you need is love... become saints by doing nice things – so wanted to be like them.”
After collecting a dozen soft toys he wrapped them in Christmas paper, placed each in a freezer bag to keep dry, attached a gift tag “to baby angel from Owen” then placed each beside a headstone.
“That was three years ago – and he’s now been doing it every Christmas since. This year he has given out more than 30 teddies.”
Two Christmases ago, Emma Machell, 31, of Cannock, discovered one of Owen’s gifts for the first time.
It was a brown teddy bear with a red ribbon on the grave of Lacey, the daughter, she had with Simon Woolley. SOME call them baby angels – children whose parents have only a grave to visit on Christmas Day. One morning, 12-year-old Owen Osborne-Williams noticed there were quite a few of these tiny plots in his local cemetery. The lad decided he wanted to give them a gift as well. And so began his tradition of leaving a teddy bear on each child’s final resting place. Now Owen, who has learning difficulties, has been heralded as a Christmas angel – with grateful parents keen to sing his praises. Owen’s mum Mary, 43, of Hednesford, Staffs, said: “We were visiting the cemetery at St Peter’s to lay flowers for my older sister, Denise. “That’s when Owen saw the baby section. “When I explained that some of the babies were born asleep or died when they were very young he asked if they would get Christmas presents. I said, ‘Some might, some might not.’ “Then he decided he wanted to give them a present. He’d learned at school that people had LITTLE Louie Elbourne had the same op as his twin sister Ava to help him walk – after £70,000 was raised in 24 hours.
Generous readers of the Daily Mirror and Variety, the Children’s Charity, stepped in to help the four-year-old with cerebral palsy after the NHS refused to give him the same “magic legs” as Ava, claiming his case was too complicated.
Louie, of Hull, flew to St Louis in Missouri, US, for the treatment and is now taking tentative steps.
Thriving
She said: “At first, I was confused trying to think who Owen was. Then I saw all the other graves had presents, too and started to cry. It was so lovely to think that a little boy, who didn’t even know us, had thought of Lacey and all the other babies.”
Lacey, an identical twin, died five weeks after being born at only 27 weeks, weighing 2lb 4oz, in October 2012. Her sister, Layla, who weighed 2lb 2oz, is now four – and thriving.
Next year Owen plans to extend to other cemeteries too.
Mary said: “I’m so proud of my son and the nice things people say about him. He’s a lovely, kind, boy who always does nice things for others.”
Here are some other inspirational people who, like Owen, remind us that sometimes Love is All You Need... A GENETIC fluke stood in the way of romance for garden snail Jeremy.
Being born a “lefty” snail his shell swirls went counter-clockwise and his sex organs were on the wrong side.
Geneticists at Nottingham University wanted to find out why and launched a one-in-amillion search for a mate on social media.
Jeremy got lucky when not one, but two, were found. BED and breakfast owner Malc Geygate-Browne offered free room immigrants post-Brexit. Horrified by reports of hate crime a the referendum, he invited peo without a British passpor stay with him for free. The owner of Bakehouse, in Sh borne, Dorset, s “I’m depressed saddened by so B r i t o n s ’ attitu towards people w have made good contr tions to this country.”