Staffs helping hand turned bad day around

A bad day has been turned into something positive for a King’s Lynn mum after a little help from a supermarket.

Staff at Lynn’s Hardwick Tesco store stepped in to help mum Grace Allen and her three-year-old son Hayden Nicholson, who has Down’s syndrome, by donating £200 towards a special, custom-made padded bed for the youngster costing around £1,000.

The donation came out of the blue after an upsetting event in the store’s car park where one of the wing mirrors was ripped from Grace’s car while she was in the store shopping.

Joyce Manning-Coe, the store’s non-food and clothing manager, spoke to Grace in the wake of the damage and during their conversation, Grace told her about Hayden and how the family was saving for the special bed.

“Because we do a lot of charity work in store I thought: How could we help this lady? So I took her number and spoke to my manager,” said Joyce.

As a result, it was agreed that money from customers who donate towards the store’s book collection, would be donated to the family to help with the cost of the bed.

Joyce said Grace was “overwhelmed” with the donation when she came into the store to collect the cheque.

“We have children’s duvet sets and we plan to donate one for the bed once it’s purchased,” added Joyce.

Grace has praised the store saying the staff had turned what was a very unpleasant day into “something very positive”.

“As a parent I cannot thank them enough,” she said adding it was completely unexpected.

“We are just about there to order the bed because of this extra from Tesco. My mum and aunty have been saving and we are nearly at the figure.

“We are looking to order it December/January time to start the New Year in a positive way forward,” she said.

Grace also praised the store in raising awareness of Down’s saying “there just isn’t enough awareness”.