THE people of Redditch have been praised for their kindness after going above and beyond to make someone’s Christmas.
It all started when Donna Heslop of Laurel Close, Selby in Yorkshire ordered a Christmas present for her autistic son to be delivered by courier company Hermes.
Her son waited in all day for the package to be delivered but for some reason Hermes sent it to Laurel Close in Redditch – 135 miles away – sending Donna into panic mode.
With no means of travel, Donna rang delivery company Hermes to ask what they could do to solve the problem.
Unfortunately, she says, they were no help at all.
Thinking on her feet Donna put a post on a popular Redditch community page on Facebook asking for the town’s help.
On the post, alongside pictures of where the package had ended up, she said: “It has gone to Laurel Close in Redditch whereas it should have been sent to Laurel Close in Selby.
“It is a really important package for Christmas, I don’t know what to do.”
The post attracted hundreds of comments from kind-hearted residents who said they would be willing to stop by the Laurel Close address and see if they could pick it up for her.
But one man – Rhys Kelly – pipped others to the post after he arrived home from working at Debenhams in the town centre.
Rhys said: “The parcel had been delivered to my house.
“I opened it thinking it was the Christmas presents I had ordered but soon realised it had Donna’s name on it.
“My first thought was to return it to the retailer so that she could, at the very least, get her money back.
“But by complete coincidence, the following day I saw her post on Facebook.”
Rhys couldn’t believe the post had attracted so much attention.
He got in touch with Donna directly and offered to send it out to her.
“She was super appreciative and really nice to talk to.”
Despite Donna insisting on paying for the parcel’s return, Rhys paid for it all out of his own pocket.
“What an amazing person you truly are – I am truly overwhelmed.” said Donna.
“And what a lovely community you all live in.
“I want to say big thank you to everyone for their help and I wish Redditch a very Merry Christmas and the very best new year.”
