Two kind-hearted Stevenston schoolchildren have been saving up their pocket money in order to buy gifts and write positive messages to help keep the community’s spirit up amid lockdown.

Jenna Mcintyre’s children Alfie, five, and Eilidh, nine, attend Glencairn Primary School and were inspired to create random acts of the kindness after doing research online.

Proud mum Jenna, 28, said: “It started around Mother’s Day when Alfie, who is autistic, was asking if I get my mum something, and my mum gets my gran something, who does my gran get a present for and I explained to him that his great nana is in heaven, so gran would visit the cemetery so that got him thinking about people who do not get presents.

“I then showed Alfie and Eilidh random acts of kindness online and what people do across the globe and then all of a sudden they asked for extra pocket money to pick up gifts with positive messages and to hide them in the area to make people smile when they discover them.

“They usually get a toy with their pocket money but now they are right into getting different colours of paper to create positive quotes and I am helping them out too. I am enormously proud of them. They are so kind.

“The kids get so excited when they watch someone pick up a gift and it makes them so happy.

“Sometimes they leave them on their way to school in the morning and then you can hear them giggling on the way back in the afternoon when they see they have been found.

“My son Alfie gets daunted as he cannot read emotions with face masks on so it’s good for him to see people smiling when they are picking them up with a smile on their face and that makes him feel happy inside.

“Everyone is feeling anxious at the moment and we have been in this situation for a year now and just making someone smile could possibly even save a life.

“It’s tough for everyone at the moment and I explain to the kids that everything that is happening with lockdown is for a positive and we will soon be able to see our family.”