11/5/2007
Your Letters
Thanks to man who came to mother's rescueI am writing to thank the gentleman who assisted my elderly mother on the morning, of Thursday May 3. My mother, who is in her late 80s, was in her electric scooter in Rackstraw Road, Sandhurst, alongside the Beefeater restaurant car park when, unfortunately, her scooter developed a fault and stopped. This happened at around 8.30am.
As my mother does not have a mobile phone she could not call for assistance. The small number of pedestrians who were passing by did not offer assistance, although she was asking if they could help.
At about 8.55am, a gentleman stopped in his car, a dark blue Vauxhall with a number of aerials, and asked my mother, “Are you all right?” He had seen my mother earlier while taking his wife to work and thought it strange that she had not moved. My mother told him that her scooter had broken down and no one would stop to assist. He soon diagnosed that the battery was flat. He then took out from his car some kind of power supply for starting cars with flat batteries and connected it up to my mother’s scooter. This enabled her to drive her scooter back home, while the gentleman escorted her.
As my mother charges the battery every night, it seemed odd that it had failed. She told the gentleman this in conversation on the way back to her home. The gentleman said: “It sounds like the battery charger may have failed overnight. If you like, I will bring my car up to your house, as I have test equipment in the car”. My mother agreed and he found that the fuse in the plug of the charger had blown. He replaced the fuse and tested the charger, which is still working. He refused to accept any payment.
My mother and I would like to say a heart-felt thank you to this gentleman. My mother found out in conversation that he is called Donald. He is a radio amateur and spends his free time working as a volunteer with the radio amateurs emergency network.
Godfrey Manning
Address supplied First printed in:
Aldershot News and Mail
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