St Helens mum overwhelmed as stranger repays lost cash and more

During a shop at Asda with her three daughters on Saturday, January 27, Toni Beckett was devastated when she realised she had dropped and lost £50 in the supermarket.

As Toni is a mother of three young children during a cost of living crisis, this was a huge loss and her mum Tracey announced this on social media in the faint hope that it may be returned.

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Toni lost the £50 at the Kirkland Street Asda (Image: Google Maps)
Not one to see others struggling, dad-of-two Jon Atherton saw Tracey's post and immediately decided it was the right time to help.

Understanding Toni's distress at a financially difficult time, the 34-year-old roofer got in touch with the mum-of-three and told her he would hand deliver her £50 to repay her loss.

Not only this, but he gave each of Toni's daughters an extra £10 each so that they could treat themselves - which was applauded by thousands of people online who said this shows the best of St Helens.

As it happened, the fifty pounds that was lost in Asda was found the next day by another honest shopper, Lucy Taylor, who hand-delivered the cash back to the fortunate mum.

Toni, who was happy to share her story but didn't want her photograph published, attempted to return the money to Jon but the dad-of-two refused and told her to use it to treat herself and family for a nice meal.

Jon gets involved in numerous acts of kindness to encourage others to do the same (Image: Jon Atherton)
Getting in touch with the Star about the act of kindness, Toni's mum Tracey said: "Fifty pounds is a lot of money to lose, especially for someone with three kids, so when Jon got in touch we just couldn't believe it.

"He said Toni had a gorgeous family and wouldn't accept the money when we offered it back, which is just unbelievable.

"Toni was over the moon with the gesture and it just shows there are some lovely, genuine people in this town. The world is a better place with people like that."

Jon has donated and delivered hundreds of presents at Christmastime (Image: Jon Atherton)
Jon, who is the owner of The Roof Rangers business, explained that this is not his first act of kindness and he just wanted to do something to help a struggling family.

For the past four years, the 34-year-old has been hand-delivering Christmas presents to hundreds of families across the North West, which have been a godsend to those struggling to afford festive gifts.

Jon, from Blackbrook, added: "I feel like I’m here to help people, some may say I’m mad or mental, but I genuinely believe that the small things make a massive difference.

"What I do does matter and I will urge all small businesses in the community to the same thing. We could make our community so happy and it is the only thing it is short of, so let’s care for others and come together as all the small differences combined make a big difference together

"I have two children, Carter and Brody, and I take them out delivering every year encouraging them to do the same and follow my footsteps when they are older".