A mum has told how she was left in shock and brought to tears after hearing from social media about the kindhearted gesture her son had performed.
Twelve-year-old Olly Jones became an online sensation after a simple act of kindness saw him help out a shopper low on money.
The schoolboy, from Prestatyn, Denbighshire, had gone to his local shop in search of a bottle of the Prime energy drink, but while there he noticed a woman struggling to pay for a loaf of bread.
Kindhearted Olly "didn’t think anything of it", when he then used some money he'd been given by his grandma for good behaviour at school to pay for the woman's bread.
A local woman who had overseen the heartwarming gesture took to Facebook to post about the incident, writing that she had watched a “little boy hand her the money to pay for it”.
Olly's mum, Carly Inglis, 31, had been scrolling through her Facebook feed when she came across the post — which described how the boy arrived at the shop on a scooter with a bike-riding friend — and thought it sounded like her son.
She promptly rang Olly, who was staying with his grandmother.
The proud mum, a carer who lives near the Spar Olly went to, told North Wales Live: “I asked him if he’d just been to the Spar and he said yes.
“I think he got the shock of his life - he must have thought I was stalking him!"
Olly explained what had happened to his mum over the phone, she added: “Olly told me his nan gave him £5 after getting a praise card from school for good behaviour.
"In the store, he gave £2 of this to the lady to pay for her bread because he felt like she didn’t have enough money. He hadn’t mentioned it because he didn’t think anything of it.”
After responding to the original Facebook post, Carly was inundated with messages from people praising her son.
She said she was moved to tears by the messages and that the response was so huge the notifications "broke" her phone.
“They were coming in so fast that my phone broke,” she said. “It took me a couple of hours to find another one, by which time the original post had got 1,000 likes and hundreds of comments.”
Locals were quick to praise Olly and his mum on the Facebook post too. One person said: “Well done for raising him so well".
Another added: "You must be so proud. The impact that a simple gesture can have on people’s lives.”
A third resident said: “You have an amazing young man for a son.”
News of Olly's gesture spread quickly around Prestatyn, and he's since received recognition and rewards from the local community.
When Carly popped into her local pub, the landlord rushed over with a £5 gift for Olly.
A teacher at Prestatyn High School also spotted the post and Olly was given another praise card after being commended to the headmaster.
Staff at the Spar then asked Carly to bring Olly back to the store for a surprise presentation.
They gave him a tub of sweets, a thank-you card for helping the regular customer, and a bottle of Prime.
Carly said: “I think the manager had spent all day running around trying to find it!
“It’s a craze among the kids here – you can’t find it anywhere.”
Olly's parents are divorced but are on good terms, and have both continued to receive messages commending their son's actions and his "loving family".
“So many people have said he must come from a loving family,” Carly said. “He does, even though his dad and I have remarried.
“Our phones are still being bombarded with messages, and I’m very grateful for them all. It’s been bit of a shock but, yes, of course, I am so proud of what my son did.”
