A woman who lost her engagement ring at a Queensland beach has been given the ultimate New Year’s surprise thanks to an incredibly selfless South African.
Ellen Britt took off her engagement ring to go for a quick swim at Paradise Point on Sunday the 30th of December. She asked her mom to hold onto it, but within moments the relaxing beach day took a heartbreaking turn.
“I gave it to my mom and probably within about 10 minutes I just heard her start going, ‘Oh my God, oh my God’ and I looked at her hand and my ring was gone.”
The bride-to-be and her mother spent hours searching the water but couldn’t find the ring at all. They were almost ready to give up when she decided to post to Facebook asking if anyone in the area owned a metal detector.
Clinton Cannan, a South African originally from Durban, saw the post and decided to try help.
“I saw this post up, [I thought] it’s not too far away, I have to go and try and find it,” he said.
At 6.30am the following morning, he headed down to the beach and got to work, and after 90 minutes scouring the shallow waters, the unimaginable happened.
“I just saw the diamonds in the sand, I screamed and put my fist in the air,” Cannan recalled with a massive grin on his face.
A huge hug and a very big thank you and the ring was returned, but Cannan said he was not after any type of reward.
“Just the enjoyment that I got finding it for someone, that’s more than money or anything,” he said.
Britt said the stranger responsible for the miracle find would now be someone she never forgets.
“I am still in shock because I thought I would never see the ring again! He took time away from his business and his family and drove from Brisbane just to help out a total stranger,” she said.
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