Dolorous Ett's Bestiary

Recently I have been hearing far too much stuff about how selfish everyone is these days. Not only have I had the most enormous dose of interminable curmudgeonly rantings about much nicer everyone was in the Good Old Days from certain older relatives, there has been a spate of articles in the newspapers about how brutal and selfish everyone is nowadays - pregnant women fainting on trains and no-one coming to their assistance, people being nasty to the elderly, people coming off their bikes and being stepped over by pedestrians who didn't even look at them...

I just don't want to believe this is true. I'm sure that a lot more small acts of kindness and altruism go on than ever make it into the papers - they just don't make such good copy, that's all (ironically, what set off all the above-mentioned nasty pieces in the media was the tragic story of a young man who died when he did wade in to try and stop a fight).

Now obviously I'm not expecting that level of altruism here. But I would dearly love to collect some stories of kind, altruistic or generally pleasing acts my readers have performed recently  - big or small - from giving up your seat on the bus to turning over your home to those in need. Or anything in between.

So bring me your stories - prove the curmudgeons wrong!