HAYLEY Gooden, whose three-year-old daughter Shaniqwa tragically died from a brain tumour, had the shock of her life when she was handed the keys to a £3,000 car.

Generous businessman Richard King had caught on to the online trend raknominations, where people deal out random acts of kindness to strangers.

And after a Smart car was brought in to his dealership, Clear Water Vehicles in Poole Keynes, he began inviting nominations for people who might deserve to have the car, fully taxed and insured, with no strings attached.

As soon as he heard Hayley’s story, he said he knew she deserved the gift.

“I knew Hayley would be the perfect person,” he said. “I have read about so many people who have been nominated, but Hayley really stood out. She is a local girl and I know how much this means to her.”

Hayley was nominated by her friend and manager at Moshan Island Grill, Kelly Moulding.

“I know and trust Kelly, and the best thing about this was that she said Hayley would be the first person she would help out,” added Richard.

“She lost her little girl not long ago, and has done lots of charity work since. When I met her I realised she is a genuinely lovely person, and within five minutes of talking to her I knew I had made the right decision.

“I had a few contenders lined up before I heard Hayley’s story, and there was one lady I was very tempted to give it to. Lots of people nominated one person who said she would auction the car off and give the money to charity, but that was not what I wanted to do.”

Hayley’s friends made sure they kept the present a secret right up until the last moment.

“It came as a huge shock to Hayley,” said Richard. “Kelly had told her she was taking her and her daughter out for lunch, and on the way she said she stopped in to see me.”

Kelly nominated Hayley because she thought she deserved a break for once.

“She has just had a really tough time,” she said.

“We took her out to lunch because I said we were taking Dyneisha [Hayley’s daughter] out for a surprise. After we went for lunch I put the wrong postcode into the SatNav and pretended to get lost.

"I said I would go in and ask for directions. She had absolutely no idea at first, because she thought the car had already been given away.

“When she realised I think we both started crying. She was shaking and couldn’t believe it. Nothing like that ever happens to her. She is one of those people who was dealt a bad hand in life, and never had anything for herself.”

WHAT NOMINATIONS ARE ABOUT

RAKNOMINATIONS, in which strangers perform random acts of kindness in the community, was launched as a response to the social media craze neknominations, where people film themselves drinking alcoholic concotions in one go before uploading the video to the internet.

They will then nominate a group of friends to replicate the stunt. The game is known to have been fatal on a number of occasions.

Some people who recieved nominations have decided to take a different approach, and perform a random act of kindness to a complete stranger, whether it be buying a sandwich for a homeless person, giving some money to a charity, or helping an elderly person across the road.