A WOMAN who thought her purse containing £700 had been stolen, has contacted the Star to praise the honesty of an anonymous good Samaritan who handed it in at a town-centre restaurant.

Brenda Gorst, who is visiting St Helens from her home in Tennessee in the USA, was devastated when she

first discovered the purse - containing the cash in dollars and sterling - was missing.

But her despair turned to joy when she learned it had been handed in at the restaurant which she had visited with her sister.

Fifty-nine-year-old Mrs Gorst arrived in the town a couple of weeks ago to help care for her older sister, Alice Fedyk (65) from Newton, who has been diagnosed as having breast cancer.

On Monday this week the sisters decided to do some shopping in St Helens before going to Warrington Hospital where Alice had an appointment. When they returned from the hospital though, Brenda, who has lived in America for 31 years, discovered the purse, containing all her money and her US driving licence, was missing.

Alice, who is due to undergo surgery at Warrington, next week, told the Star: "We tried to re-trace our steps straight away and at first there was no sign of the purse. We had given up all hope of finding it and were actually thinking the worst of people. Then on Tuesday we got a phone call to say the purse had been handed in.

"And what was even more pleasing was that it contained every last cent. It's great to see honesty like this and it really does restore your faith in people.

"With my illness this has been a particularly traumatic time for us and when the purse went it seemed like the final straw, but the outcome has been really fantastic and things seem much better."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.