When I was asked to take part in the #OxfamChangesLives campaign, I was incredibly excited because I am a big fan of Oxfam and what the charity does. I am one of those people who believes in paying it forward, particularly at Christmas…

 

This Oxfam campaign focuses on moments of kindness and experiences that you have had being kind to others. So I thought that I would share a few stories of mine about when I have received kindness, as well as when I have been kind to others.

 

I helped out with a makeup disaster…

 

Just the other day, while I was doing some Christmas in Boots, a teenage girl knocked an entire stand of lipstick over. She went bright red and looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, panicking like crazy. Everyone just walked by her, but being the accident-prone and clumsy person that I am, I felt her pain and went over to help her clear up the mess. She was so grateful for the help and it only took me a couple of minutes to help.

 

We were given free accommodation

 

When my little cousin passed away in Helen House Children’s Hospice, we arrived just in time to say goodbye. We’d got the call a few hours earlier from my uncle that she wasn’t going to make it, so we had packed a bag, jumped in the car, and drove like maniacs to get there to say goodbye. We made it in the nick of time to say our goodbyes. This was one of the worst days of my life, but the kindness shown by the hospice staff, feeding us and putting us up in one of their guest rooms usually reserved for immediate family only, was incredible. They made out grief that little bit easier to cope with.

 

I helped a lost child find her daddy

 

While on holiday at Center Parcs Longleat Forest with my fiance and his sister and her partner, we came across a little girl of about six-years-old wondering around in tears. No one seemed to notice her, but we did. She looked totally terrified. So my sister-in-law-to-be and I approached her asked her if she was okay. Through her tears she explained that one minute her dad was there and the next, he and her little sister were gone. We sat her down on a bench and waited with her, hoping her dad would return, sending the boys off to put an announcement out over the loudspeaker. After a few minutes, a stressed out looking man came around the corner and the little girl ran into his arms in tears. He was incredibly grateful that we had sat and waited with her, calming her down and keeping her safe.

As it’s Christmas, why not make the one kind thing that you do today to donate to charity and help to change someone’s life? Kindness is the essence of life, or at least, that is what my mum always taught me. There’s a quote about kindness that I love – I think it’s incredibly beautiful… “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever waste.”