One houseboater’s nightmare is being turned around by the generous donations of fellow houseboaters, friends, and strangers. According to Metro.co.uk, Heather Charlotte’s houseboat, the Midnight Diamond, sunk on the River Lea in London despite firefighters’ best efforts to save it. The student was left homeless and lost all her possessions. But when a fellow houseboater set up a GoFundMe page with a goal to raise her £1,000, the donations doubled the goal in only 20 hours.

A firefighter who was helping on the scene added his own donation and recently wrote, “As a firefighter I often see people lose their homes, but this time I felt helpless. Hope the donations helps and life gets back to normal soon.”

As any houseboater well knows, the risk of losing our waterbound homes is often a thought too terrible to bear. Luckily there are heartwarming stories out there like this that show when tragedy strikes, there are fellow people out there ready and willing to lend a hand.  

Picture: Rex