Fleetwood fishing store owner is praised for a kind-hearted Christmas gesture when a young customer was gifted with a new rod and reel

Derek Leather who saw the act of kindness first-hand, called it a ‘Christmas miracle’ and said: ‘this is why we should support our local business’.

He’d been shopping at Fleetwood Fishing Supplies, on the Esplanade, yesterday morning (Dec 23, 2022) when a young lad walked in, covered in sand and looking ‘totally fed up’.

He approached the store owner, Ben Callighan, to ask if he could fix his broken fishing rod but was told by Ben that: ‘it had gone to the fishing scrap yard in the sky’ and was ‘unrepairable’.

Derek added, in a post on a Facebook angling group: “He turned and started to leave, but Ben stopped him, and from Santa's sack produced a rod and reel ready to go.”

The young boy is known to the owners as he calls in with his group of friends to buy bait when they go fishing - although his name is not known to them.

Annabelle Turner who co-runs the tackle shop along with her partner, Ben, said: We regularly pass on fishing tackle for young anglers that come into our shop. This wouldn't be possible without the help of our customers who donate tackle to be passed onto the younger anglers and we have also a good stock of pre-loved rods from our carboot days prior to the shop.”

Customer feedback – ‘it bought a lump to my throat’

The good deed has been praised by members of the angling community, who said:

I was so moved by Ben’s kind gesture it bought a lump to my throat there are still kind people in the world – Michael P Miller

What an amazing thing to do, you made that lads Christmas - Mike Ayton

It’s nice to be nice , and I’m sure the lad will never forget your kind gesture – Simon Evans

It would have been easy to just let him go. Now that shop has a customer for life – Peter Howes