Stranger Helps Neighbour After Reading Note

A Wellington man suffering chronic illness is blown away by a stranger who helped him get new car tyres after his old ones were slashed.

Josh Carwell-Cooke, 30, suffers from inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis and diabetes and was admitted to hospital more than 30 times last year.

This Christmas, Mr Carwell-Cooke and his partner Amber Proudfoot, 23, were planning to visit family in Palmerston North, Hawkes Bay and Waikato.

However, their plans were endangered when Mr Carwell-Cooke's car, parked outside his central Wellington house, had its tyres slashed over the weekend, leaving him devastated.

"Everything was going wrong and the tyres were a cherry on top," he said.

He resorted to taking a taxi to work at $20 a pop.

Luckily, neighbour Rose Moore, who had never met the couple, saw a note written by Mr Carwell-Cooke while on her way to work and it broke her heart.

"It broke my heart a little bit that such awful stuff could be happening in my neighbourhood, let alone New Zealand", she told Newstalk ZB. "I though gosh, wouldn't it be nice to do something about that?"

So she did just that.

Ms Moore had her partner take a photo of the note as she had already walked past the car.

She then used the "power of social media" and posted the photo of the note on the Beaurepaires Facebook page.

The tyre company responded quickly, and by that afternoon, the couple's car was sporting brand new tyres.

Mr Carwell-Cooke said he was blown away by the act of kindness from his good-hearted neighbour.

"I'm speechless. I'm so grateful. I just didn't expect this to happen at all," he said.

- NZ Herald