A mother feared precious photos of the birth of her second child had been lost in the wind – only for a stranger to track her down almost a year later.
Michelle Palmer lost her memory card while on West Wittering beach.
But she was reunited with it after seven-year-old Jake Holdaway stumbled upon the card almost a year later while on a trip with his father, Wesley.
There were 270 photos and videos of a mystery family, including the birth of a little girl, stored on the card.
Mr Holdaway, 35, a plumber from Banstead in Surrey, said: “I made it my mission to find the family because as a father I just thought I’d be gutted if that was me, so I decided to try to find them.”
While scrolling through the pictures, Mr Holdaway zoomed in on the baby’s birth tag and discovered the mother was Miss Palmer.
Unable to find her on Facebook, he went back to the memory card and spotted her son wearing a school jumper for Coldean Primary School.
Memories Mr Holdaway then phoned the school and by chance it was Miss Palmer’s neighbour who answered the phone.
Miss Palmer, 32, of Selham Drive, Brighton, said: “When my neighbour told me, I couldn’t believe the trouble he’d gone to.
Anyone else would probably have thrown it away or kept it for themselves.”
The mother-of-two said it was a few weeks after her trip to the beach when she realised the memory card was missing.
She said: “I had no idea where I’d lost it so I didn’t really try looking for it.
“All my pregnancy pictures were on there of my daughter, Amber, when she was born in hospital and my little boy at his Halloween party.
“It was really lovely to find a video and pictures of my nan on there as well, because she’s no longer with us.
“I didn’t even know what was on the card when I got it back, so it was just really nice to have those memories back.”
Mr Holdaway added: “It was a really lovely feeling to know it was getting back to its owners.
“It was a bit of a mission to get it back to them, but I was really pleased we did."
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