Martin Gallagher/TwitterCountless social experiments have shown that, sometimes, we aren’t the best at helping out total strangers in distress.
But a Liverpudlian man, Martin Gallagher, has proved that anyone is capable of kindness. When the 45-year-old nurse saw a young woman in distress at London Euston train station, rather than keeping his head down and walking away, he offered his assistance.
Grace, a 21-year-old student who also hails from Liverpool, had lost her train ticket home from London and, according to her account, the station staff refused to reprint.
TwitterRealising she was stranded, the young woman became upset and Martin stepped in to pay for her train fare home.
Gallagher, who works as a nurse in the Renal Unit of Guernsey’s Princess Elizabeth Hospital, said he didn’t even think to check how much the ticket would cost him.
He only saw the £159 fee once the young pharmacology student tweeted about his generosity and her account went viral.
https://twitter.com/gracegeorgina/status/819457967762317312
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He told ITV News:
I have two daughters myself, 12 and 10, and if something like that were to happen to them, I would want someone to help them. The poor girl was so upset and started hyper-ventilating and I just thought ‘that’s not nice’. The staff were making a really big deal of it.
I don’t even remember how much the ticket cost, but I paid it because I would never want anyone to leave my girl in that sort of state. The whole carriage was just looking at her and no one was helping. She only looked really young – I thought she was about 16 or 17 – and she was getting so upset, hyperventilating.
I told the ticket guy not to say anything but she cornered me on the platform after we got off the train. I just said I wanted her to get home safe.
People have since responded to the story, including Martin’s partner, Lindsay, who explained Martin’s kind gesture, saying, ‘He has always been like that. He won’t see anyone suffering’.
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It seems Martin’s kindness has sparked some goodwill on the social media platform, which makes a change from the bile-filled sentiments more commonly sent out into the Twittersphere.
The kindness of strangers will never cease to amaze, so pay it forward. It doesn’t cost much.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.