One day when I was about 14 years old, I was walking in Coniston in the Lake District with my dad. It was the middle of winter, snowy and dark - and we got lost. We were in quite a remote area, and we hadn’t seen any vehicles or people for a very long time.
It definitely wouldn’t have been a good place to have had to spend the night, and it was just beginning to get scary when a car came round the corner – and pulled over.
The driver was a young woman: we were two male strangers, and it would have been perfectly reasonable of her to drive on. But she stopped, and when we told her we were lost she said to get in - and then she went out of her way and drove us to where our car was parked.
It was a long time ago now – certainly before the days of GPS, which would have saved us from getting lost – but I’ve never forgotten it.
It was one of those acts of kindness that really make a difference: we’d probably have survived, but she made our evening much better than it might otherwise have been.
Is there someone you’d like to say thank you to? Write to us at magazine@observer.co.uk
