Young mum's internet campaign to find stranger who handed her note on train describing her as 'a credit to her generation'

A young mum was moved to tears when a kind stranger handed her a note and £5 on a train - for being a ‘credit to her generation’.

Samantha Welch, 23, was given the hand-written note as she sat cuddling her three-year-old son Rylan who was asleep on her lap.

The scribbled letter, written on a piece of scrap paper, praised her for her parenting skills, and was signed 'man on train at table with glasses and hat’.

The note also included a £5 note so Samantha could ‘buy herself a drink’.

It read: '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.'

Samantha, originally from Crewe, but who now lives in Plymouth, said she was shocked when she first read what was written.

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'When he handed it to me he said it had fallen out of my bag, so I just said thankyou and took it from him,' she said

'When I looked at it and saw what was written I was so shocked. I feel really overwhelmed by it all, it was just so lovely to get it.

'I was so shocked at the fact he had put the money in it, I couldn't quite believe it.

'I've put the money in a savings account for Rylan now, I thought that was the best place for it.

'Money is quite short for people nowadays so for someone to give me that was amazing, and I want to put it to good use.'

Samantha has now launched an internet search in a hope to trace the kind gentleman, who she describes as in his early 50s.

She added: 'When he described himself at the end of the note as the table across from me I was trying to rack my brains to see if I could remember him but there were that many faces on the train they all blur into one.

'I really, really wish I could remember him but I just can't, I think he was around his early 50s, but I don't want to offend him if I really got it wrong.

'I'm trying to hard to recall the people and put things together but because he was getting off the train it all felt so rushed.

'I have no clue so I'm hoping people might be able to help me out. I wish I had looked at him in more detail, I really want to thank him personally.

Samantha was on a  First Great Western train from Birmingham to Plymouth last Thursday when a man handed her the note as he got off in Bristol at around 7 or 8pm.

The mum-of-one was attempting to entertain Rylan during the busy service and said she was simply playing with him as he ate his dinner.

'All I was doing was entertaining him really,' Samantha said.

'He was eating his dinner, I had made him a packed lunch, and we were laughing at the fact he kept calling his grapes strawberries.

'He was just being a happy, laughing little boy. We were playing together and I was trying to keep him occupied.

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'He normally gets quite rowdy and bored on long trains so I was doing my best to entertain him as much as I could.'

After his dinner Rylan fell asleep, sprawled across his mum and another seat.

When another passenger came to sit down Samantha quickly moved Rylan on to her lap, insisting the man took the seat rather than stand.

Shortly after, the unknown admirer handed Samantha the note before disappearing into the rush to get off the train.

Samantha said: 'Both me and the man next to me were a bit confused at first.

'Once I'd taken it we realised it couldn't have come out of my bag because I was sat next to the window. It was then we both looked at it, and we were so shocked.'

* Do you know the generous stranger on the train from Birmingham to Plymouth? Get in touch with Yahoo News on Facebook, Twitter, or email chrispar@yahoo-inc.com