A pair of “lovely young lads” from Kent stepped in to help two pensioners catch their flight on time after “pandemonium” broke out on the way to Gatwick.

Wendy Shaw, 65, and her pal Pat Lawrence, both from Sheppey, were on a train to the airport which suddenly had to terminate at East Croydon.

The scene at the station was “chaotic”, with “the world and his wife” trying to grab a cab to Gatwick.

However, at this point two men called Lewis and Jack – who had only just met each other on the train – kindly said Wendy and Pat could jump in an Uber with them.

Wendy says they would have faced a “very difficult journey if it were not for these two lovely young lads”.

She told KentOnline the kindness they were shown by the strangers “restores your faith in humanity”. Her Facebook post about the incident has now been shared by thousands of people.

Wendy and Pat had hopped on a train from Sittingbourne to Gatwick last week, from where they were flying out for a holiday in Cyprus.

‘When you meet two lads like that, it restores your faith in humanity...’

But when they pulled into East Croydon it was suddenly announced that the service would be terminating due to a power outage.

Wendy told KentOnline: “It was all going fine and we got on the train which was quite busy.

“We pulled into East Croydon and all of a sudden there was this random announcement saying this train would not be stopping at Gatwick and we needed to get off.

“A second announcement was made and two young lads, who we later found out were called Lewis and Jack, were standing next to us so I asked them what they thought the announcement just said.

“One of them said we all needed to get a taxi and offered to share with us. We trundled out the station which was chaotic – there was the world and his wife trying to get a taxi.

“Jack managed to order one on Uber – we would never have known how to do that. It was not until then we realised they did not know each other.”

Wendy says there were so many people at the station all trying to get a cab to Gatwick, including Easyjet staff, so it was a relief Jack managed to grab one for them all.

The group rode to the airport and managed to grab a group picture before heading off to get their flights.

“We all got there in good time,” Wendy added.

“Pat and I were quite stressed when it first happened but when the two lads took us under their wing it was quite reassuring that we were not the only ones.

“The main thing was that we got there ok and it is quite a nice story to tell. When you meet two lads like that, it restores your faith in humanity.

“We live on Sheppey, Jack lives in Whitstable, and Lewis lives in Rochester so we are all reasonably close to each other too.”

When Ms Shaw got home, she posted about what happened on Facebook in a bid to find the boys and thank them again for sharing a taxi with them.

So far, her post has been shared by 9,000 people, with comments including “this is so wonderful” and “great job boys - what a lovely thing you did”.

Lewis Prior managed to get in touch with Wendy through the power of social media.

“It was such a sweet and kind thoughtful thing she put that post of appreciation on,” he told KentOnline.

“Had we have not done what we did, it would have probably been a lot harder for them to get their stuff together and get a taxi to the airport. It would also have been more expensive.

“This is the beauty of life, you band together sometimes and it enabled us all to get our flights.”

Lewis says it was a crazy experience because there were so many people all trying to find a way to the airport - but the group very quickly bonded while navigating the station to find a lift.

“Everyone was a stranger to me. Jack was in the same carriage as me on the train but we did not really speak to each other,” he said.

“Suddenly we were told to get off the train and it was absolute pandemonium at the station because everyone wanted to get to Gatwick – it was absolutely crazy.

“Myself and Jack were having small talk together and he said shall we get a taxi together and I thought it was a good idea - we did not want to miss our flight.

“These two lovely ladies, Wendy and Pat, were by us and we asked them if they wanted to share our taxi too.”

So far, Wendy and Pat have managed to speak to Lewis but are yet to find Jack.