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Good Samaritan Simon Byford joins of long line of individuals helping restore people’s faith in humanity
Friday, 18th October 2019, 4:56 pm
When Tim Cameron lost his wallet while cycling home way from work, it was quite possible he would never see it – or any of its contents – ever again.
But there was a surprise in store when Mr Cameron went to cancel his bank cards – someone had paid him four lots of 1p, with a short message accompanying each online transfer.
“Hi, I found your wallet in the road – 07XXXXXXXXX – text or call,” the messages read when pieced together.
Good Samaritan
After contacting the number, Mr Cameron discovered his Good Samaritan was software engineer Simon Byford, who turned out to live less than two miles away.
Mr Byford, 30, was also cycling home from work when he spotted the wallet in the road “looking all lost and sad”.
“I had a look inside to see if there was anything I could use to contact the guy,” he told i. “He had some ID in there. I looked him up on Facebook but there were lots of Tim Camerons.
“I thought to myself that there wasn’t anywhere to hand it, in as it was in the middle of the road. Then it suddenly struck me that I had transferred some money with a reference before.”
Mr Cameron was reunited with his wallet within the hour. “He sent me his address, so I rode over,” he explained. “I picked up a bottle of red wine on the way to say thanks.”
His tweet about the ingenious act of kindness proved an instant hit, receiving more than 170,000 likes and prompting others to share their stories.
“My son lost his wallet in London and feared the worst, but someone popped it in a postbox and Royal Mail found his address on his driving licence and sent it to us,” one person wrote.
“Nothing was missing; there are more good people about than we think.”
“My daughter lost her bag with [her] purse in while on holiday in Portugal,” another replied.
“Someone found her through Facebook, messaged her and posted it back to the UK. We told him to use the money in the purse to post it; when it arrived, it was all still in there.”
Dr Janina Steinmetz, a senior lecturer in marketing at the Cass Business School with a background in social psychology, says we should not be surprised that the story struck a chord.
“People want to be nice, they want to be kind and helpful,” she says. “When people are helping others, they get a warm glow, a sense of accomplishment, of having changed something.
“I think people have that motivation but often it’s quite difficult to act on it.
“In this example, it’s very concrete how this person could help and I think there’s an element of similarity – the victim as a fellow biker, a sense of ‘it could have been me’.
“Although that person went to great lengths to contact him, in the overall act it wasn’t an extreme act of giving up something. It probably took an hour, but in that hour he could achieve a huge impact.”
Restoring faith
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Mr Byford joins a long line of individuals whose random acts of kindness have helped to restore people’s faith in human nature.
Ron and Sharleen Gillies were driving 350 miles from Edinburgh to Cambridge to see Ms Gillies’ mother on her deathbed when a minor accident near Stockton-on-Tees threatened to scupper their journey.
Mr Moore stopped to help and, on hearing the couple’s story, scrapped his plans and drove them the remaining 200 miles before heading back.
His actions meant the couple made it in time, but Mr Moore insisted he did not deserve any fuss. “They were stuck in a bad situation – I just made it a little better,” he said at the time.
“It was the last time they would see their mam. I was just trying to be a decent human, because so many people drove past. By giving people your time, you can make a bad situation nice.”
Winter warming
The coats and their attached notes puzzled Christmas shoppers and it later emerged they had been left there by homeless charity Serenity, which runs a mental health drop-in centre in the city.
Christian Trouesdale, then 18, was flooded with messages of support from all over the world for his decision to walk hand-in-hand with the 96-year-old customer.
As well as attending lectures, students are required to select one of seven happiness exercises – ranging from acts of kindness to meditating – to practice each week.
“There’s good research behind this, which shows that when people engage in acts of altruism or kindness, they experience a much greater boost in their own happiness than they predict,” the course leader, psychologist Professor Bruce Hood, explains.
Sharing stories
The proliferation of social media means it is also much easier to share heart-warming stories. And doing so should be encouraged, according to Dr Steinmetz.
“It’s definitely good to set these examples and tell people that there’s this kind of kindness in the world,” she says.
“Often when people watch the news they focus on negative events, because these are often more important for the future wellbeing of society or more newsworthy. That can lead people to believe that the world is full of problems.
“Positive events often don’t receive that kind of attention, so it’s good that people get pointed to [hem to get a more balanced view.
“It can be really helpful to show people mundane acts of normal, helpful human interaction.”
Dr Steinmetz believes we have an automatic feeling of empathy when we see someone in need – the key question is how to harness it.
“I think people can pay more attention to these small situations that we see in everyday life and not just rush past them or think somebody else is going to help,” she concludes.
“Even small acts of kindness can make a difference.”
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