Stranger gives Cambridge Uni hopeful heart-warming letter with money on train: 'Live your dream'

A Cambridge University hopeful has shared the heart-warming note given to him by a stranger on a train, urging him to "live his dream".

Posting on Twitter, 17-year-old Joe Wren shared the note, which was given to him on a train after he and his parents began speaking to another passenger about the interview he had just undertaken to read mathematics at Robinson College, Cambridge.

The generous stranger, who passed Wren the letter as the teenager got up to leave the train in a hurry, also included a £10 note with his message of goodwill.

Explaining what happened, Wren, from Ashington in Northumberland, wrote: "On the train back we were talking about my Cambridge interview, when I got up to leave the guy sitting on the next table handed me this envelope with £10 enclosed as well with a lovely note on. Im still in shock, this nice gesture will stay with me for the rest of my life."

The message on the envelope read: "Hello. We haven't even spoken but I really wanted to wish you luck with your application to Cambridge. I've not been there but I did a science degree and it changed my life.

"Please live your dream but don't put too much pressure on yourself - Cambridge would be great but wherever you go and whatever you do, you'll do great service to the world. Love yourself and others and be generous."

The stranger, in his 40s, added that the enclosed £10 note was a "small token of how I believe great students like you should have the chance to study".

Wren intimated how much the note meant to him, saying: "Ignoring the £10 for a second, the note was so kind and i will always remember that, it will stick with me forever."

He added that he comes from an area with few Oxbridge applicants, and said: "I want to help be the catalyst for younger students in my area to apply to the top universities."

After the post was widely shared on Twitter, with more than 3,700 likes, Wren told the Press Association he wanted to meet the stranger again to "tell them how amazing they are". He added: "I would love this man to get the recognition he deserves, so many times these kind of things go completely unnoticed."

Wren's brother, Ross Thompson, also offered to have a drink with the mysterious well-wisher, calling it "unreal". He said: "If this ever gets back to the stranger that done this for my brother.. let's have a drink sometime.. you sir are an absolute diamond."