Cost of living: Act of kindness helps little girl go to cinema

A family's offer to help a mother on universal credit has meant her little girl got a very special day out.

Caroline Rice told BBC Good Morning Ulster that money was so tight she felt she might have had to give up her job as a classroom assistant.

"I don't know if I can afford to go to work now because I'm borrowing money to put diesel in my car," Ms Rice said.

The Bell family from Bangor, County Down, were listening and felt compelled to try and help in some way.

They approached the programme hoping to be put in contact with Ms Rice so that they could offer her and her daughter a small donation to be spent whatever way they wished.

"It is not right that a hardworking mother trying to provide for her family is struggling at this time," Mr Bell told the radio programme on Friday.

"The cost of living has gone up and people like Caroline are struggling and they shouldn't - it's just not right.

"We are in a society that should be looking out for our neighbours and making sure that people have and don't go to bed thinking about where they are getting the money for their diesel to get to work."

In her initial interview, Caroline who lives in Fermanagh, had told the radio programme she felt stuck in a "vicious cycle" and said she was "struggling at the time to see the light at the end of it".

"It's more than food, it's more than diesel, it's not being able to buy your child a pair of shoes," she said.

She said she was incredibly touched by the kind offer from people she did not know and used the money to spoil her daughter for the day.

"That money meant that I could take my child to the cinema," Caroline told the programme.

"She got to sit in the cinema in the comfy seats, it was just a wee treat for her. We haven't been able to go to the cinema in like two years."

Ms Rice said it was not just her daughter that was helped by the generous donation of the Bell family.

She shared some of that money with another family in England she knew to help towards a 13-year-old child's birthday.

"All it does is raise people up a bit, I want to bring people along with us and pay it forward to help others.

"It shows that there are nice people in the world. For all the negative stuff happening in the world, there are a lot of good people."