A thankful mum has praised a good samaritan's deed after it meant her daughter could catch her train to school.
Schoolgirl Scarlett Hargreaves was struggling to get her card to work as she tried to buy four sets of train tickets for her daily commutes.
She was getting ever more frantic as the machine repeatedly rejected her payment as a queue of hurried fellow commuters built up behind her on Tuesday morning.
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So a kind-hearted passenger took matters into her own hands and stepped into pay for the tickets - much to Scarlett's relief.
The lovely gesture meant the 11-year-old was able to catch her train to school and others managed to get their trains on time from Ainsdale station in Merseyside.
Scarlett's mum, Sharon Hargreaves, told the ECHO : "She normally gets her tickets for the week on Monday to get to school so she doesn't always have to queue up but she was a bit late so she just got the one.
"Then today she got the rest of week so Tuesday to Friday. The guy printed them off and she went to use her card but it wouldn't work.
"She tried to use it a few times but the queue was building up so people were getting a bit stressed because they were going to miss the train and so on.
"Then a lady, I think she was two behind Scarlett, she said she would pay but she didn't just pay for that trip, she paid for the whole week. It was like £4.50, I don't think she released it was going to be that much but I thought it was so lovely of her to do such a nice thing.
"I've asked Scarlett and she doesn't know which way she was going, whether she was going towards Southport or Liverpool but she has said she would recognise her if she saw her again."
The 52-year-old is now appealing to find the kind hearted woman who paid for her daughter's train fare.
She mum-of-five said: "It would be nice to say thank you to her really for doing that. I know people can get a bit stressed when they're in a rush.
"Scarlett rang me straight after asking whether there was enough money on her card and everything is fine. I just thought it was a lovely gesture.
"I've shared it on Facebook to see if I can try and find the lady who paid and say thank you. A lot of people have shared it, whether or not I hear anything back I don't know."
