My eldest son is, amongst other things, an accomplished cyclist.

He was selected earlier this year to compete for his country in an International event in Italy in September and was participating in a major event in the Alps about a month ago when he was involved in a rather nasty accident.

He broke his collar bone in three places; 18 rib fractures; two pelvic fractures, a collapsed lung and a couple of litres of blood and ‘gunge’ drained from his chest cavity, amongst other injuries, ended his cycling activity and nearly ended his life.

He was unconscious for perhaps 10 minutes and came round with his head cradled by a complete stranger and with an umbrella held above him sheltering him from the extreme sun.

Another total stranger had secured his bike and called for backup. He was taken to the nearest hospital and almost immediately transferred to a trauma specialist facility in Chambery.

He received the highest level of professional care, and is now, thankfully, recovering at home in the New Forest.

My point is that he received exceptional care and attention from people he had never met and is unlikely to ever see again.

Complete strangers went out of their way to help and comfort someone in desperate need. Those people rose above the narrow confines of daily life and demonstrated their humanity.

We would all do the same you say. Well, maybe. I am sure we would all like to think so, but sadly it is just not the case.

I read recently of a road accident where people ran to assist, only for one of those assisting to have their car stolen by another witness to the accident!

In the hospital my son was visited every 15 minutes by a nurse and every hour a robot took his pulse and blood pressure readings. Those nurses ‘were only doing their job’, some might claim. Perhaps, but in most cases they had opted for a caring profession where altruism dominates and where acts of kindness and generosity of spirit can overwhelm the recipient.

I have no doubt that we all show acts of kindness towards our friends and relatives, and that is to be expected, but to demonstrate care and kindness towards total strangers?

That is another level of humanity to which I dare to suggest rather less aspire?

Many years ago, I was returning late on a Sunday night to my university in the East Midlands when I ran out of petrol. I was in ‘the middle of nowhere’, it was pitch dark and after midnight.

I had hardly exited my ‘old banger’ when a car stopped and a kindly voice asked if I needed help. This gent drove me around for almost half an hour looking for a petrol station that was open.

He then bought me a container and filled it up with petrol, drove me back to my car and saw me safely on my way.

He told me he was a social worker from Stafford (or Stoke?), but refused my requests for name and address, so I couldn’t repay his generosity.

That was an act of such kindness and generosity of spirit… by a total stranger, who gained nothing from such an act, but it obviously left a lasting life long impression on me.

We need more acts of unprovoked kindness to strangers to justify the claim ‘human being’. Humanity doesn’t require a qualification; it doesn’t require you to be able to recite Shakespeare or debate the cosmos; it just needs each of us to care for our fellow human and to demonstrate that at every opportunity.

How much better might our world be?