A GRIEVING widow is searching for the Good Samaritan who ensured she got the chance to spend the last precious hours at her husband’s bedside.

When elderly Vanetta Westell took the call she’d been dreading for weeks – that her husband, Ken, was near the end – she was stranded miles from his nursing home.

But after rushing into the street in a panic, a passing driver who she’d never met calmed her down and drove her to the nursing home.

Sadly, Ken died hours later, but even at her time of grief Vanetta is eager to thank the man who came to her aid.

She said: “I was in Broadstone when my mobile phone went off. It was a call from the Magna Care Centre in Canford Magna telling me to get there as soon as possible.”

Vanetta, who had taken some rare time away from her sick husband’s side to deliver charity envelopes, had parked her car some distance away and the clock was ticking.

“I just came running out into the road in a panic, shouting that I needed my car,” said the 73-year-old from Canford Heath, Poole.

“This guy in a 4x4 pulled up, jumped out and asked me what the trouble was.

“I said, ‘I’ve had a call from the nursing home to get to my husband’ and he said he’d help me – just like that.

“When I calmed down and told him it was a kind thing to do, he replied: ‘If I cannot do someone a favour now and again it’s a poor day.’ That was his attitude.”

Ken died later that night. He’d been battling Parkinson’s Disease for years.

Vanetta has been back to the road several times, knocking on doors in a bid to trace the driver.

She said: “I don’t even know if he realised my husband was at the end of his life. I don’t even know if I said that, because I was in a panic.”

  • IF you were the driver who came to Vanetta’s aid in Twin Oaks Close, Broadstone, Poole, at 7pm on April 9, get in touch with Jim Durkin at the Daily Echo on 01202 674901.