Couple track down A14 heatwave Good Samaritan lorry driver

The lorry driver protected the Toynes in their 1965 Austin-Healey - pictured in the Eurotunnel earlier in the day

A couple have been able to thank a lorry driver who shielded them in their classic sports car during the heatwave after tracking him down.

Bill Toyne and his wife Jacqui were travelling home on the A14 in Cambridgeshire when traffic came to a standstill on 18 July.

Mr Toyne, 76, said he wanted to thank the Good Samaritan "properly" after he kept them in the shade.

After an appeal on social media the driver's employer put them in touch.

The couple, in a 1965 Austin-Healey sports car, were making their way home to North Thoresby, near Grimsby, after a two-week holiday visiting their daughter, Emma Morton, in the south of France.

After leaving the Cambridge Services they became stuck in a traffic jam after an accident.

Mr Toyne said he needed a lorry to shelter from the sweltering sunshine and a DHL lorry came up alongside the couple, where it remained for two hours.

'Very humble'

He said the lorry driver "clearly understood our dilemma".

"That afternoon the conditions were horrendous, without that shade my wife would have passed out," he said.

Although he thanked him and said his "wife blew him kisses", he do not think this was "adequate", so wanted track him down.

Mr Toyne made a note of the number plate and his daughter put out an appeal on Facebook.

The lorry was tracked down to Castle Donington in Leicestershire and the delivery company spoke to its thoughtful driver, who was happy for his details to be forwarded to the Toynes.

Mr Toynes emailed the lorry driver and said "a very big thank you" to him.

Mr Toyne said the driver was "very humble" in his reply.

He said the driver wrote: "Both of my daughters keep reminding me it's nice to be nice, so I did my best."