A SELFLESS young boy with a heart of gold traced a homeless man he met the year before, so he could give him Christmas presents bought with his own pocket money.

Thomas Hughes, age seven, of Abermule met a homeless man called Wayne on a visit to the German Christmas markets in Birmingham in 2018.

The meeting had a profound effect on Thomas, who in October told his mother Julie Hughes that he wanted to return to Birmingham to try and find Wayne and give him Christmas presents with is own money.

Thomas, a pupil at Ysgol Dafydd Llwyd in Newtown, spent £22 he had saved up for presents which included biscuits, a hat and a scarf.

But Julie said she was concerned that they would not be able to find Wayne and Thomas would be heartbroken.

"We went to the German markets last year and met Wayne. It was the first time Thomas had ever encountered someone who was homeless", Julie said.

"He got talking to Wayne, and was upset, he wanted to take him home and help. He was quite sad to leave him there.

"Then out of the blue, in October, Thomas said he wanted to go back and find Wayne, that he was saving up his own money to buy him Christmas presents.

"We went back on December 21 and I thought Thomas would be disappointed as he wasn't there we couldn't find Wayne. But we spoke to a couple of police officers, gave them a description of Wayne, and they pointed him out to us not too far from where we were the year before.

"Amazingly Wayne remembered us and Thomas was taken aback, but Wayne said that someone taking the time to talk with him is an act of kindness he'd never forget."

Julie added that Wayne said he had been homeless for three-and-half years and is a qualified Maths teacher, who was delighted and overwhelmed to receive his gifts.

She said: "Thomas sat and talked with him for a while and I’m so very proud of Thomas for his kindness and thoughtfulness. He’s done this completely off his own bat, no prompting and he now wants to do more to help. We're so very proud of him.

"It was mixed emotions. We were happy to find Wayne again, but we were sad that he was still there.

"Hopefully if we go back next year, we will struggle to find him again because his situation has changed for the better."