STRANGERS who came to the assistance of a teenage girl who visited Devon for work experience are being sought by a grateful mother.

Clair Parkinson, 39, was distraught with worry after Charlie, 16, called her from Tiverton Parkway station to say she had to spend nearly all her emergency money on taxi and rail fares.

The youngster faced a journey to London and across the city to her home in Essex on a busy Friday night with just £5.

Two bystanders overhead an anxious telephone conversation between Charlie and her mother and insisted she take £5 they had brought for parking.

Miss Parkinson said the gesture restored her faith in human kindness.

She wants to thank the mystery strangers and return the £5 with a bunch of flowers.

Miss Parkinson, from Tiptree, Essex, had dropped keen rider Charlie at E&C Bleekman's stables in Cullompton for work experience and reluctantly agreed she could get the train home.

"Charlie had to get a taxi to the station and it cost her quite a lot more than expected and when she paid for her train ticket it was a lot more than the Network Rail website had stated. I had not realised the fare I saw online had been discounted," she said.

"Charlie rang me while on the platform and told me what had happened and that she only had £5 left. I was so worried about her even though she kept reassuring me she would be fine.

"There was a couple with a child waiting on the platform to meet someone. They approached Charlie and said they had overheard her conversation to me and that they only had £5 on them that was for parking. They said they would just park somewhere else and that they wanted her to take the £5."

If you were the couple who helped her out, call the Echo newsdesk on 01392 442257.