Simon Thomas has opened up about the kindness of a random stranger and how it brought light into his life following his wife’s recent death.

The former Blue Peter presenter, who now works for Sky, said someone who he’s never met has been sending him daily notes of encouragement and support since the start of the year.

On 23 January, Simon shared a photo of one of the notes which Dan Ritchie and his family had sent, which read: “Know that all of Heaven is cheering you on today Simon.”

Simon’s followers will know that he sends his eight-year-old son Ethan to school with motivational notes each day.

He said the Ritchie family clearly recognised that he needed some notes too, to encourage him to “keep going” whenever he felt like giving up.

The presenter described the kind gestures from the Ritchies as “light in the darkness”, referring to the tragic death of his wife last year.

Simon’s wife Gemma died in the last week of November 2017, after a brief battle with blood cancer – specifically Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She was just 40 years old.

Simon explained in a blog post that his wife had complained of headaches for three weeks and had been to see her doctor three times. She ended up in A&E on a Monday, was diagnosed with blood cancer later that day, and by the Friday she had passed away. 

“Gemma was everything – my soul mate, my rock, the wind beneath my wings and a beautiful mum,” Simon tweeted on 19 Jan. “The pain of life without her is at times too much to bear but out of this heartbreak the light will shine again.

“Life is so precious. God Bless.”