A mother of four whose husband is going through a devastating battle with cancer has turned her family’s lives around after showing immense kindness to a stranger.
Danielle Brown, from Melbourne, was putting her shopping in the boot of her vehicle in a car park when a stranger asked her for money for a bus ticket.
Mrs. Brown did not hesitate to hand him some money and ended up giving the man $20 because she did not know how much a ticket cost.
Asked why she was willing to hand over the money, Mrs Brown said “everyone is going through their own thing” and revealed that her husband had been diagnosed with incurable brain cancer.
What Ms Brown didn’t know was that she was being filmed and that the stranger was social media star Samuel Weidenhofer, who has more than a million followers on Instagram.
In gratitude for her generosity, Mr. Weidenhofer returned the $20 to her along with $1,000 in cash to use on a family vacation. She also received $2,000 from the Derrimut gym team.
Footage of the encounter has since gone viral, and Weidenhofer also organized a GoFundMe for the family, which has raised more than $31,000 so far.
Danielle Brown handed $20 to a man she thought was a stranger asking her for money to buy a bus ticket.
The stranger was actually social media star Samuel Weidenhofer, who gifted the mother of four $1,000 in exchange for her generosity. He also launched a GoFundMe campaign for his family.
Brown’s husband, Murray, came close to death 12 years ago when he underwent a double lung transplant.
Mr Brown, who lives with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs, pancreas and other organs, had recovered well and was living life to the full with his wife and four children, aged between two and six, when he suffered a seizure last year.
An apple-sized tumor was found inside Mr Brown’s brain and a biopsy confirmed he had stage three brain cancer.
The father is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation to spend as much time as possible with his family.
“Everyone is going through their own thing, we’ve learned it the hard way and if you can be kind, why not?” Brown told Weidenhofer in the video, which he has been viewed more than two million times on TikTok.
‘Last year my husband was diagnosed with brain cancer, it is incurable and could last 12 months.
Danielle’s husband Murray Brown (pictured with their children) was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer last year.
“We’d love to go on vacation, we’d love to do all that, but it’s money.”
The couple appeared on Seven News and thanked those who had donated to their fundraiser.
“We’ve been reminded recently that we don’t know what people are going through,” Ms. Brown said.
Her husband said hearing her cancer was incurable was extremely “jarring.”
“It looms over you, (but) kindness and generosity and all those things make you want to live every day,” he said.
Mr Weidenhofer told the Daily Mail Australia he was still in touch with the Brown family, who planned to use the donations to take him on a trip overseas while Mr Brown was well enough.
“They want to do everything they can while he is healthy enough and that amount of support and funding allows them to travel abroad,” he said.
A family friend contacted the social media star and shared her story with him.
That friend told Ms. Brown that there was a guy who was filming random acts of kindness for people, but the mother had no idea who Mr. Weidenhofer was or that he was going to be there.
“I had no prior contact with her, it was totally spontaneous and there was a hidden camera,” he said.
Mr Weidenhofer set out to spread positivity following the death of his aunt, who had struggled with mental health issues.
“There are a lot of negative stories out there and to be able to put something positive out there makes me very happy,” he said.
‘You just don’t know the impact it has on them and also on the people watching.
“It brings me great joy to spread some positivity when so many horrible things are happening around the world.”
The couple thanked those who donated to their fundraiser, adding: “You don’t know what people are going through.”