My debt of gratitude to the caring young mum who stepped up to help when I needed it the most/ Sue Plunkett

There is a lady who lives in Swansea who went from being a stranger to my best friend last week.
Sue Plunkett has thanked the stranger who came to help when her son went missing on holidaySue Plunkett has thanked the stranger who came to help when her son went missing on holiday
Sue Plunkett has thanked the stranger who came to help when her son went missing on holiday

And that is no exaggeration. Natasha Morgan ( I hope she doesn't mind me mentioning her name) came to the aid of me and my family while we were on holiday in Wales

Within hours of arriving in Porth Cawl my teenage son Robbie had gone missing, AWOL, nowhere to be seen.

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After settling into our caravan we wandered down to the beach, which was right next to the park, and while my partner, Ian, and I bagged ourselves a little sunny spot to relax Robbie went down to the water's edge for a paddle.

After about 20 minutes or so I couldn't see him among the groups of families, kids and dogs running round so we walked down to the water's edge and scouted round. He was nowhere to be seen.

Trying to keep calm I asked a couple of people if they had seen him. No-one had. Panic set in pretty quickly even though I was trying to think rationally that he must have wandered off somewhere.

'He's 14, he can swim well, he is fine,' the voice in my head told me.

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But after about 25 minutes of scouring the beach I was at my wit's end. As the caravan park was literally on the beach the logical thing would have been to walk back there and look for him.

But logic doesn't enter your head when you are in a state of panic. I had flashbacks to when, at the age of five, he disappeared in Towneley Park in Burnley and was missing for around 40 minutes on a hot Easter day.

After seeing my distress on the Welsh beach, Natasha sprang into action. She seemed to come from nowhere, grabbed my hand and said 'What' wrong?'

When I told her, shetook over the situation and became the voice of reason and calm.

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She took my phone number and said she would go to the caravan park and look for Robbie, stopping first at our caravan.

Within a couple of minutes she rang to say he wasn't at the caravan so she would search the park. After 10 minutes she rang again to say she had found Robbie... on the football court!

He was oblivious to the fact he was 'missing' and we had alerted the coastguard.

I didn't know whether to hug him or slap him.. I did both.

But Natasha was the one I hugged first. When a complete stranger goes out of their way to help you it restores your faith in human nature. There were plenty of people around that day but it was Natasha, and one other lovely family, who stepped forward without hesitation, to offer their help.

I will be forever grateful to them.

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As for Robbie, he had assumed we had returned to the caravan as he couldn't find us on the beach as it was one of those with four different exits that all look the same.

'Don't let this spoil your holiday, your lad is ok and you got a Disney ending,' Natasha, a mum of four herself, told me.

It didn't spoil the holiday and I got the chance to say a proper 'thank you' to Natasha and her family the following day with gifts of wine and chocolates, it was the least I could do.

I will always remember how she went out of her way to help us that day. Natasha Morgan you are a little legend.

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