Reunited: Young mum finally meets the mystery stranger who gave her £5 and note saying she's 'a credit to her generation'

The young mum who was given a heart-warming note and £5 by a stranger on a train has been reunited with the mystery man.

Father-of-one Ken Saunders, 50, wrote a message to single mum Samantha Welch, 23, calling her a 'credit to her generation' after watching her look after her three-year-old son Rylan.

He signed off as 'the man on the train at table with glasses and hat. Have a lovely evening' and handed it over as he got off the train.

Samantha was so touched by the note she launched an online campaign to find mystery note-writer, and the pair were reunited near his home in Wiltshire today.

Little Rylan gave the Mr Saunders a thank-you card and a cuddle and told him: 'Thank you, I'm going to spend it on my mummy.'

Samantha had been visiting family in Crewe and was heading home to Plymouth last Thursday when she changed trains at Birmingham.

She sat close to Ken, who had been in Leeds and was heading back to Wiltshire after a week-long training course.

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Before he got off the train in Bristol, he watched as she taught her lad good manners and gave up a seat to a fellow passenger.

He revealed he handed over the cash because Rylan reminded him of his own daughter Romani, now 20, when she was younger, and he was impressed by Samantha's attitude.

Speaking before the reunion, he said: 'She had brightened up my day, and I wanted to brighten hers.

'The efforts she put into tracking me down just to say thank you only show what a lovely person she is.  It's quite overwhelming.'

Recalling the journey, Ken - from Brinkworth, Wiltshire - added: 'This young lady got on with her little boy.

'He was lovely lively lad and he reminded me of my daughter when she was his age.

'She was doing really well on the train with him and with all the paraphernalia - the pram and everything else.  It's not easy for any mum.

'Then he coughed and she said 'put your hand over your mouth' and he practised that for a little bit.

'Then he said 'what?' and she said, 'no, it's pardon'. It brightened up my journey to witness this.

'Then the train split in half and it got much busier, with more passengers getting on, and she pulled him on to her lap and offered her seat to a few people.

'I thought 'what a lovely girl' - a real good role model to this little lad and for other youngsters.

'Young people are much maligned, but she was great.'

When Ken went to get off the train, he pulled out his ticket and found a fiver and a scrap of paper so decided to leave the message 'on the spur of the moment'.

The note said: 'Have a drink on me, you're a credit to your generation, polite and teaching the little boy good manners.

'PS I have a daughter your age, someone did the same for her once. Hope when she has children she is as good a mother as you.'

Ken, who lives with his partner and three stepsons, explained: 'When my daughter was 18, she went out on her first night out in Bristol. It was New Year's Eve and I advised her not to, but she went.

'After she left, she phoned me and said she'd got off at the wrong station - Bristol Parkway instead of Temple Meads, and the club she was going to was by Temple Meads.

'I was fretting because I'd already had a drink that night and couldn't come and get her.

'Luckily a kind couple came to her rescue and gave her a lift into town.

'She later lost her ticket at home and a man amazingly bought her one out of his own pocket.

'Later she was on the train platform and she was freezing, when a man came to her and gave her his jacket. He said 'Happy New Year' and let her keep it. I always remembered that and I guess it's paid off in the end.'

The young mum immediately started an online search for her mystery stranger, and tracked him down to his home yesterday after he came forward.

They were reunited in his kitchen where Samantha thanked Mr Saunders with a card and said: 'What you actually did for us was amazing.

'It has made me feel I want to do something kind for someone else.'