AN ELDERLY couple were taken by surprise by an extraordinary gesture of kindness by a stranger in Middlewich in their hour of need. 


Ann Madeley, 73, and her disabled husband Alec, 76, went to Tesco Express in Wheelock Street to do some shopping on Easter Sunday but realised Alec had left his wallet at home when they came to pay for their bags. 


Leaving the shop empty handed, the pair were shocked when they were chased by a stranger, young enough to be their grandson, carrying their two shopping bags, costing around £15. 


The man handed over the shopping, saying ‘I could see you were stressed, it’s my treat to you. Happy Easter.’


Ann said: “It really shook me up that somebody could be that nice to a stranger; it took me by surprise. Nobody has ever done anything like that for me before. 


“His parents ought to be really proud because he must have been brought up really well to do something like that.” 


Ann is a carer for her husband Alec, who has cancer and is also slightly brain damaged after having an accident four years ago.


“I was just stood there and I started to cry, I couldn’t believe it," added Ann. "I had just been having a really bad time the past few days and as I was walking down to the shop I was thinking ‘I wish something positive would happen in my life.’”


The couple, who live in St Ann’s Road, made the good Samaritan a card to say ‘thank you’ and asked to leave it in the store, but were told by staff that it would be pointless as the man had never been seen before and was probably just passing through. 


Amy Connor, Middlewich Tesco Express store manager, said: “The man just came back in and I thanked him for what he’d done but he just said ‘oh it was nothing’. He acted like it was nothing, it was really lovely.


“You hear about these kinds of things happening but nothing like this has ever happened in any the shops I’ve worked in.”