THE parents of a Blackburn woman crippled in a car crash days before she was due to return home from New Zealand with her family have been touched by the kindness of a Lancashire Evening Telegraph reader.

The heartbreaking story of how mother-of-two Nicola Ayres has been told she will never walk again prompted the anonymous well-wisher to send a letter and £10 donation to her mum and step-dad Norma and Ray Scholey.

The couple, of Openshaw Drive, Blackburn, broke down in tears when they opened it.

Mr Scholey said: "I would just like to thank this person because it really does mean a lot to us. It is really nice that they have thought of us and they've not even signed their name. We were both crying when we got it."

The letter reads: "Your story touched me considerably. Please use this £10 towards the fare or for some flowers for Nicola. I remember you in my prayers every night." Mrs Scholey is hoping to fly out to Auckland to see Nicola next month when the couple have saved enough money for the air fare.

But she has some further bad news for her 32-year-old daughter, who does not know that her father, former Darwen police officer Mel Keeble, has died.

Nicola was injured just days before she was due to fly home for a year with her husband Joe and two children, Jade, four, and three-year-old Coral.

Mr Scholey added: "She is not doing very well at the moment. She is very ill, being sick and has developed blood clots because she cannot get out of bed."

Previous news story

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