With the news being full of gloom and doom, how about sharing some heart-warming news stories that you've found?

I'll start with this one from the BBC website about two homeless people given a chance and taking it.
'I was homeless on these streets - I'm the perfect tour guide'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-43349804/i-was-homeless-on-these-streets-i-m-the-perfect-tour-guide

Fantastic 😁 love this thread and thank you fir starting a good positive thing.......                                                                                                                                                                             

Thanks xSuzix.
For a regular dose of inspirational stories, try "Outlook", available on the BBC iPlayer or as a podcast.

Try "Pakistan's taboo-breaking motorcycle woman", found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p060ccyp

Today's heart-warming offering, folks.

It’s been seven years since Nicole Grimes was forced to give up Chloe: her beloved canine companion.

When the girl was 14 years old, her father began a job outside the home and since Chloe was suddenly alone for long periods, she would bark all day long. The Grimes family was forced to consider the neighbors’ complaints about the young noisy pup, and had to give her up for adoption at a local shelter.

Though Nicole understood the reasoning behind her parents’ decision, she was still heartbroken over her lost friend and never forgot her.

Now a 21-year-old mother living in Brownsville, Pennsylvania with her husband, Nicole noticed one of her Facebook friends had posted a photo of a senior dog needing a loving home.

The elderly couple who’d been caring for the dog had died recently so the couple’s neighbor posted the adoption ad on Facebook. The hound looked a lot like Chloe, so she decided to adopt it.

“It just reminded me of my old dog. So I decided to take her in,” Grimes told TODAY.

Even more strangely, the dog was similarly named Chloe.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the resemblance to her childhood pal, so one day Nicole took the dog in for a microchip scan: in a strange twist of fate, the new canine family member was the exact dog that she’d been forced to give up so many years ago.

“I felt like I won the lottery,” Grimes said. “I never thought I’d see her again.”

Now, the little family will be giving Chloe all the love and kisses that Nicole missed out on since she was a young girl.

Great posts NPM, warms the cockles!                                                                                                                                                                             

Found this one on the Huffington Post website (or HuffPo to Private Eye readers!), and thought I'd share it with y'all (I've slightly edited the original article):

Russ the four-year-old pit bull was living in an animal shelter in Philadelphia when volunteer dog-walker Kayla Filoon laid eyes on him.

Kayla instantly knew she had to do something to save him from shelter life and within 24 hours, Russ was adopted.
She said that Russ had arrived at the shelter in a bad way - he was very skinny and missing fur on his tail and ears. He also had kennel cough. That day, Kayla walked Russ and she couldn’t believe how well behaved he was.

“He was sitting in the same position that he was before, just being quiet while the other dogs were barking and causing commotion,” she said. “He was really cuddly with me, even when we went into the yard. He seemed like such a sweet dog, and he didn’t bark at any of the other dogs.”

The next evening, Kayla adopted Russ and took him home, much to the surprise of her six other housemates. Russ was quick to settle in and one night, she was doing coursework when Russ jumped onto the sofa and started spooning her.

“There was a whole other sofa open, and we had his bed on the floor, but he didn’t want to lie anywhere else. So he ends up positioning himself, and I look down, and I think, ‘Oh my gosh, look at him’,” she recalled.

The dog loves to be close to his new owner, and will often put his head on her arm or his paw over her chest.

Kayla added that her pooch is probably “one of the most grateful dogs she’s ever seen”.

Full article with a must-see picture can be found at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/pit-bull-loves-the-woman-who-adopted-him_uk_589da018e4b0ab2d2b142b0f

Alternatively, I've posted a picture of Russ with Kayla on my profile - Misc pictures

Aww!

Ohhhhhhh what a gorgeous piccy 😍😍😍😍 gorgeous Russ x thank you ie found a few I'd love to add but they all have big adverts g as lf way through.... Grrrrrrr                                                                                                                                                                             

Suzi, we did it! Just 24 hours after you emailed their CEO, Holland and Barrett have removed all krill based products from their stores.

Because of you, the Antarctic - and the whales, seals and penguins that call it home - are one step closer to getting the protection they need.


Share the good news

In just over 24 hours, 45,000 of us sent emails to Holland & Barrett, asking them to stand up for our oceans by telling the krill fishing industry to stay out of sensitive Antarctic waters. Meanwhile, volunteers around the country were out in force taking the campaign to their local high street stores.

Together, we made sure Holland & Barrett got the message loud and clear - and last night the company ditched the krill oil products putting the Antarctic Ocean at risk.

YIPPEEEE and top to everyone that helped..... We do make a difference....

Three Kids Are Set To Win National Awards For Stopping A Suicidal Man From Jumping Off A Bridge
April 1, 2018

Three kids from Hertfordshire, England, are being honored for saving a suicidal man's life.

Devonte Cafferkey, 13, Sammy Farah, 14, and Shawn Young, 12, rushed to grab a man sitting with a rope around his neck on the edge of an overpass in Waltham Cross. Cafferkey and Farah refused to let the man go while Young called for help.

Young found 47-year-old Joanne Stammers, who took over from the boys and held onto the man "for what feels like forever".

The Hertfordshire Police nominated Stammers, Cafferkey, Farah, and Young for national awards from the Royal Humane Society, a charity promoting life-saving intervention.

The three boys, who go to St Mary's High School, also picked up Special Achievement Awards at the Broxbourne Youth Awards for their bravery.

"I am extremely proud of all three of them, they are all good boys and it's nice that they are getting recognized for doing something good in the community," Young's mum said

Great story about those young lads, Suzi. Let's hope that the poor man is recovering too!
Come on you lot. Let's hear some more good news.                                                                                                                                                                             

BBC News website today:
Bikers rally for Easter egg run.
Hundreds of bikers have been taking part in the Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity Easter Egg Run.

The run has evolved from a fun way of delivering Easter eggs to young patients, and now raises substantial funds for charity through sponsorship.

Few words but some great pictures found at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43610919

Great news, we won! Yesterday we handed in your name - along with more than 300,000 others - to Environment Minister, Michael Gove, demanding action on plastic pollution. Today, he announced that the UK government is going to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers.

In the UK, we use 35 million plastic bottles everyday - and 5.5 billion of them go un-recycled every year [1]. This is a huge step towards reducing those numbers - offering vital protection to our wildlife and oceans. And we wouldn't be here without you.

A Deposit Return Scheme is a simple and effective way of tackling the problem. When you buy a drink you pay a little extra, which you get back when you return your empty drinks container [2]. Last year Scotland announced they would introduce a scheme [3]. Now, thanks to your help, England will soon catch up.

Of course, we haven't done it alone. Along with all your support, organisations like Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Marine Conservation Society, and a boat load more have demanded real action - and helped achieve real change.

While this is a huge, ambitious first step, we need to make sure that the Deposit Return Schemes are effective. They need to apply to all drinks bottles and cans of all sizes - and return points should be convenient.
ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC NEWS fir the planet that we all live on.... And will encourage kids to pick up litter like we used to fir deposits on bottles back in the day...... Yayyyy

That is indeed great news! Let's just hope it gets carried through properly and is the start of serious Green initiatives instead of the usual rhetoric we hear, particularly coming up to elections. I just fear that I will hear those dreaded words "Self regulating" floating out. I.E. sort it out yourself. With corner shops, where will they store them, hygiene issues attached. In rural communities, who will take them? etc. Still, it's looks like a start.
It brought back memories of going down to the "Offy" (Off-Licence to the spotty youths amongst us!) and getting money back on the "empties". That was the Sixties when we were "green" without realising it. Down to the corner shop and getting "a Quarter" of sweets from the big jar and into a paper bag. Veg's into paper bags with no plastic in sight then into your own canvas or cotton shopping bag. We were that poor it was first out of bed were best dressed ..... oh! yes!....
them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea, a cup o' cold tea, without milk or sugar, in a cracked cup, an' all. No! we never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper,or maybe the best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. (Thank you Monty Python!)

Lmfaooo 😂 😝 😝 you nearly has me there
It's all good and yes I'm nit sure why we stopped doing what we did before.......someone somewhere made themselves a job by inventing what we don't need..... And now they are back in a job inventing what they got rid of.... Pmsl 😂 😂
Goid news..... Alligators near florida are off endangered species list..... Yayyyy