8:36 am, September 9, 2024
A car salesman has been labelled a ‘knight in shining armour’ after he came to the rescue of a pensioner who was trying to visit her husband in hospital.
Margaret Cochrane, 73, was on her way to visit husband James at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride when her car ran out of fuel half way through her journey.
Worried that she would be unable to make it to her partner’s bedside, she stumbled into the nearby Burnside Car Store and made a desperate plea for help.
She initially asked whether the dealership had a can of petrol she could use to get herself to the nearest filling station, but was told they could not help due to insurance purposes.
It was at this point that a member of staff stepped in and decided to go the extra mile.
The unnamed employee grabbed a set of Jaguar keys and agreed to take the stricken Cochrane to the petrol station himself, along with an empty jerry can.
The salesman then took the pensioner back to her car, chatting all the way, before waving her off to carry on to the hospital.
Cochrane, who had been at a work leaving do the night prior to the incident, said she had completely forgotten to refuel and the encounter had restored her faith in people.
By way of thanks, the she even bought the salesman five scratch cards at the garage, the Daily Record reports.
She told the paper: ‘My husband is still in the hospital and it’s not good. It’s ongoing, and I go up to visit him every day. The last thing I needed was to be stuck on the side of the road.
‘As I was on my way to the hospital, what happened? I ran out of petrol. Immediately, I’m calling myself a fool.’
Explaining what happened next, she added: ‘I told him that I am an old woman in distress and what had happened, but they weren’t allowed to give out a can of petrol due to their insurance.’
It was at that point that her saviour salesman stepped in. ‘I was like, “Oh my god”, Cochrane said. ‘One minute I’m distraught and the next I’m in this luxury sports car getting chauffeured.
‘He could have easily said he was busy, but he went out of his way to help me get up to the hospital to see my husband.
‘Hopefully he won £100,000 [on the scratch cards] — he deserves it. He was a real knight in shining armour.
‘When I was younger, everybody helped one another, but when you see generosity like this nowadays, it restores your faith in people.
‘He was an absolute star. It’s not every day you get saved by a knight in shining armour.’
