World Happiness Report: Readers share acts of strangers’ kindness

Given their age and the speed of the traffic, they didn’t dare change the tyre themselves, and rang the AA. They were told someone might be there in around half an hour. They feared they would miss their flight to Portugal, where they were supposed to be going on holiday.

Ten minutes later, however, a young man in a white van pulled up behind them on the hard shoulder. He said he had noticed them parked there after initially driving past them, so he turned off the motorway and came back to see if they needed any help.

“He quickly changed our tyre,” says Jocelyn. In the hurry she forgot to find out his name but did ask why he had stopped.

Jocelyn recalls him saying: “When I went past and saw you were in trouble, I thought, suppose they were my granny and grandpa?”

She adds: “He would accept nothing for his kindness.”

Jocelyn says there have been occasions when she has fallen on the pavement, only to be helped up by a young person nearby. “I think on the whole young people are very, very helpful,” she says.