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Middlesbrough engineer called out for his kindness after helping to buy a new TV for an elderly customer
1 June 2020
A Virgin Media engineer from Middlesbrough has been praised for the kindness and generosity he showed to an elderly customer whose TV had broken, after helping to buy her a new one.
When engineer, Craig Wilson, visited the home of Virgin Media customer, Elaine Gray, to fix an issue with her TV service, he soon discovered that her telly had broken.
Unfortunately for 78-year-old Mrs Gray, the timing couldn’t have been worse; she has been self-isolating for 10 weeks and had also experienced other things going wrong in her home, such as a leaky roof.
Kind-hearted Craig wanted to help her and immediately sent a group WhatsApp message to his Virgin Media colleagues to see if they would contribute funds to help buy Mrs Gray a new set.
Thanks to the generosity and quick responses of the team, Craig managed to raise £180 within 20 minutes of his message being sent.
As a result Craig was able to buy Mrs Gray a brand new 40” TV – an upgrade on the 32” set that she’d previously had.
Mrs Gray is now once again watching her favourite programmes, such as nature documentaries and U.S comedies, like the Big Bang Theory.
Elaine Gray said: “Right now, the telly is good company, and when it had broken, it felt like it was the sixth thing to have gone wrong in my home.
“Craig was thoughtful and lent me his smaller test TV to use over the weekend. When he said he’d arranged to buy me a new one, I couldn’t believe it - I never expected it at all.
“I know there are other people in a similar situation right now and the fact that Craig had helped me was just lovely.”
Mrs Gray also sent Craig a thank you card, which read:
“Thank you so much for your kindness, especially Craig, so thoughtful. I’m still amazed by it all, such beautiful people you are.
“It will be in my thoughts [for] the rest of my life. I will especially toast you on my 80th birthday next year!”
Craig Wilson said: “Once I realised that Mrs Gray’s telly had broken and that so many other things had gone wrong in her home, I couldn’t just leave her without doing something to help.
“It was really emotional setting the TV up for Mrs Gray as I could see she was overwhelmed, and I feel proud that I helped her as I wanted to give her some normality during these testing times.”