A student was left overwhelmed by the kindness of a stranger who overheard her phone conversation with a counselor about the pressures of college deadlines.
Charlotte Rose Ford, a student at the University of Manchester, was discussing the £20 cost to obtain a doctor’s letter so she could get a mitigating circumstances form in relation to her university work.
After ending the call in tears, Charlotte, who was sitting at a table in the university’s student union at the time, was presented with a coffee, a touching note, and two crumpled £10 notes tucked down in the cup’s cardboard sleeve.
The note read:
“I hope you don’t mind that I overheard. Just wanted to say don’t worry! I’ve been there, I thought I wouldn’t get through my undergrad & now I’m doing a PhD! This is for the doctor’s note. You’ll get through it!”
Charlotte documented the incident in a Facebook post. She said the story “just shows that there are really good people in the world” who are “full of kindness.”
“The weirdest thing happened to me today and I thought I should share it because it just shows that there are really good people in the world.
I was sat in the cafe in the students’ union and I decided to make a few phonecalls – one of which was to book an appointment to see the counselling service at Uni. Mental health stuff at uni is hard and sometimes I struggle to get my work done to a standard I’m happy with, or I miss deadlines because I’m too distracted by my low mood or I’m too anxious that my work isn’t good enough – so I have to ask for mitigating circumstances.It wasn’t a particularly fun phonecall, and I got a bit emotional whilst I was explaining to the counsellor what I wanted to see them for. At one point I mentioned the fact that I needed a letter for a mitigating circumstances form, and that I’d been to the doctor but that they would charge me £20 for it, which is money I can’t always spare. I was quite teary talking to the counsellor and when I hung up the phone I pretty much just wanted to go back home to bed rather than to my afternoon lecture!
So I sat there messaging one of my friends to see if maybe anyone could come and chat with me for a bit, when someone came up to me, put a cup of coffee in front of me and said “This is for you, someone sent it over.” And I found this note tucked inside the cup sleeve!
Of course I pretty much burst into tears all over again before I’d even opened it (because I’m like that), and then I was so overwhelmed by it! I don’t know who it was that sent it to me but if they read this I want to thank them so much because they completely made my day and made me feel so much better; as well as completely baffled by how kind strangers can be! I just hope I can find a good way of passing it on.
I just want people to see this because I think it shows two things:
1)You’re really not on your own no matter how much you might think so, because there’s always someone who’s been there
2)The world actually is such a lovely place sometimes and that there are people full of kindness!”