Strangers Donate To Elderly Woman After She Was Conned Out Of First Holiday In 60 Years

There's nothing quite as exciting as that run-up to your holidays.

All that hard slog, skipping nights out, saving every penny so that you can clear off to somewhere far away and chill out.

So imagine how Janet here felt when conmen tricked her out of her holiday savings? Pretty gutted, we'd imagine, especially because it was her first holiday since 1960.

Thankfully, the internet heard her sad story and set up a crowdfunder to help her get her trip to Cornwall back on track. Unsurprisingly it's smashed its £250 target.

SWNS

80-year-old Janet Jotham was planning to make the trip down south from her home in Matson, Gloucester, with her son Stephen.

She hasn't been away in 58 years and had been saving up her state pension to pay for the trip.

Three men claiming to be from the council convinced her to hand over £250 to pay for 'tree maintenance' in her garden.

They talked their way into her house and apparently had cards that showed they were council employees. Needless to say, they didn't do any work in the garden and just scarpered.

Scummy people.

Janet borrowed the cash from her friend, then had to pay her mate back from her holiday savings.

She said: "The whole thing has left me worried, shaken and I can't believe that this happened."

Her main carers are her two sons, who have looked after her since she had breast cancer and two hip replacements.

Pixabay

Mr Jotham said: said: "I went to collect the holiday money from mother's house and she explained to me what had happened.

"It made me angry, in fact I was livid that they would do this to a frail and vulnerable lady.

"I said to mum that she had been fleeced and she was so upset.

"She has been left distraught and I cannot get my head around how they could do that to someone.

"Since this happened we have had cameras put up.

"You just cannot take people at face value."

It's so nice to see that the internet's going out of their way to prove to Janet that there are still some decent humans in the world.

The crowdfunder that was set up two days ago has already smashed its £250 target.

At the time of writing, it was up to £647.

Time to upgrade yourself to a five star hotel we reckon Janet.

Topics: cornwall, Pensioner, Holiday

Daisy Jackson

Daisy Jackson is a freelance writer, who has previously worked at Shortlist Media and Trinity Mirror. She has written about the Manchester terror attacks and appeared on BBC Five live to discuss the aftermath, as well as interviewing an orthopaedic surgeon in Syria.