Whilst fumbling around at the bottom of my handbag to find any loose change that may be hiding to pay for a car park, I was overwhelmed by one woman’s act of kindness. I didn’t know this woman, she was a complete stranger but to spare my further frustration she gifted me seventy pence. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was much needed at the time and I was incredibly grateful. She didn’t want anything in return, she didn’t even expect my thanks and gratitude (which I gave her in abundance), and she did it (I think) because she is a nice person.

So as a result of this random act of kindness, I decided to ‘pay it forward’. When I returned to my car after only twenty minutes (I had paid, through my benefactors’ kindness, for two hours), I gave a young man just arriving my ticket and so he could benefit from the kindness too.

Paying it forward describes when the beneficiary of a good deed (me in this case) repays it to others (the young man) instead of to the original benefactor (the kind woman). It is not a new concept; it’s mentioned in books dating back to the early 1900’s. It’s even featured in 1980’s comics. Marvel published a great example of paying it forward between Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. Bruce Banner was broke and couldn’t even afford his bus fare and Peter Parker gives Banner his last five dollars, saying that someone had given him the same amount when he was down on his luck and that he was repaying his debt. Banner later went on to repay his debt to an old man he encountered who was also down on his luck.

You may also remember the Pay it Forward movie of 2000, an adaptation of Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel, starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. When a young boy, after his teacher gives him a chance, attempts to make the world a better place.

In fact, we now even have the ‘Pay it Forward Movement and Foundation’, founded in the USA to help to start a ripple effect of kindness acts around the world.

In 2007, International ‘Pay it Forward Day’ was started in Australia – a day where people from across the World perform random acts of kindness to three or more people and asking those people to do the same. On the 30^th April this year the UK officially celebrated its fifth year of ‘Pay it Forward Day’ and there are some truly of the inspirational stories as a result.

Sarah-Jayne, aged eighteen from the UK is just one such story published on the official ‘Pay it Forward Day’ website.  After reading the Pay it Forward book, Sarah-Jayne realised that the world would be a better place if everyone just did three favours for others.  She lost her dad at the age of eight and so naturally had great empathy for children of a family friend who had just been widowed.  Sarah-Jayne took time out to speak to the children calming their fears and making life a little easier for their mother.  It felt good to help and this prompted the second favour which was to set up a counselling service at her school. Her third favour was for her neighbour, an elderly woman who was poor sighted.  It was this neighbour that had introduced Sarah-Jayne to the Pay it Forward book. The elderly neighbour was an avid reader and it was a real act of paying it forward to take time to read aloud to this neighbour and keep her company each night.

“I couldn’t believe at first how three small favours could help so many people and all the people I helped have promised to pay the favour forward.”

What I love about this concept is that anyone can do something for someone else without expecting anything in return.

When they got married, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge set up a charitable gift fund for well-wishers to donate to instead of buying wedding presents, personally choosing over twenty charities.

The organisations support causes the couple feel strongly about: combating bullying, changing lives through arts and sport, fulfilling children's potential, help and care at home, support for service personnel and their families, and conservation for future generations.

But some people have really opened my eyes. There is a story where a complete stranger paid ten thousand dollars so that one woman could have a liver operation that she otherwise could not have afforded. She still does not know who it was who ‘paid it forward’, but she is forever grateful.

So, whether it is buying a coffee for someone, giving someone flowers to cheer them up, paying for someone’s parking or even a liver, why wait 230 days until the next Pay it Forward day? Show someone you care, share your kindness and let the ripple effect continue, today!