A WOMAN has spoken about a random act of kindness from a stranger that helped her through the anniversary of her husband’s death.

Known as Blue Monday, January 20 has been branded the most depressing day of the year.

And for Kathleen Runciman, 88, the day had a particular poignancy - it was the sixth anniversary of her husband, David’s death, who died aged 85 in his sleep.

The great grandmother had popped into the Tesco Superstore, on Warwick Road, Carlisle to pick up flowers for his graveside near Our Lady and St Wilfrid’s Church, in Warwick Bridge - when she got chatting to Jenna Sutherland, 32.

When the kind-hearted Harraby mum-of-two heard about Kathleen’s story she not only bought the flowers but also gave her a lift to and from the graveside.

Jenna’s actions were just one instance which helped the Brighter Cumbria project smash the world record for most random acts of kindness in a day.

About 20 schools and hundreds of businesses and people from across the county came out for the campaign on Monday to spread a little joy.

In another instance children from Kingmoor Infants School, Inglewood Junior School and Caldew Lea Primary School handed out sweets and flowers in Carlisle city centre in an attempt to get shoppers smiling.

Other schools included Cockermouth School and Victoria Junior School, Workington, where pupils visited the residents of Amathea Care Home to give them gifts.

The final total was announced in an assembly at Inglewood Junior School, School Road, Harraby, on Wednesday, January 22, with 22,475 acts of kindness recorded - the previous record of 20,070 was set in Derby.

Great-grandmother Kathleen, a retired nurse, and Jenna also came along to tell their story.

Afterwards, Kathleen said: “It was my husband’s sixth anniversary and it was quite poignant, it was 5am in the morning and he was lying beside me in bed, I just got up and screamed.

“He never said anything on the night before and he always used to say ‘goodnight and God bless’.”

“I was saying to Jenna, we don’t believe in coincidences - we were supposed to meet on that day at the flower stand.

“I go to the grave on a regular basis and especially when my son comes up from London.

“When I came home my family did not believe me when I told them all she had done to help - it really blows you away.”

Jenna said: “I knew about Brighter Cumbria and I was going to get a few bunches of flowers to give to neighbours but we got chatting.

“We are going to keep in touch and we are even going for lunch at The Auctioneer because we both like their roast dinners.”

Children at the school say they were inspired Jenna’s act of kindness.

Sophie Hammond, eight, in year four, said: “I thought it was really good and it’s really good to be kind to people who feel down.”

Lynk Johnson, seven, in year three, said: “It was really nice: it’s nice to be helpful and make people happy.”

The pupils were also involved in their own acts of kindness when they delivered Reasons to be Cheerful leaflets to residents near the school as part of the project.

Headteacher, David Grimshaw, said: “It really brought it home to the children the effect that kindness can have.”

Organisers of Brighter Cumbria were over the moon at the result. Nick Turner, from Carlisle-based PR firm Intro, said: “It has been fantastic, it is easy to be cynical in this day and age but you can see they brought genuine happiness.”

The project was sponsored by the Cumberland Building Society, whose staff also took part on the day.