A LETTER sent in a bottle down the river from Oxford has been discovered by a family nineteen miles away.

Mum-of-two Nicola Armstrong and her husband Selby, were playing with their children in the river behind their house, in Whitchurch-on-Thames near Reading, when they discovered a coffee jar floating in the water.

Mr Armstrong picked up the coffee jar, to get what he thought was litter out of the stream, however, he soon realised there was a small note place inside the glass jar.

Mrs Armstrong said: “My husband saw the coffee jar in the water and he got it out because he thought it was rubbish, then he realised there was a note inside, so he opened it up and found that it was a letter.”

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When the family got inside the house, they opened the note to find it was a long letter from a man who had unfortunately lost his wife and daughter last October, and now sends ‘messages in bottles’ down the river to try and meet new people.

The letter was addressed from Littlemore, so it had ‘travelled a fair way’, according to Mrs Armstrong.

She added that her two young daughters, six-year-old Florence and four-year-old Daisy, were ‘very excited’ because it was ‘like finding treasure in a bottle’.

The letter, which was sent from the address of a care home in Littlemore, read: “Thank you so much for reading my little note. If you do find my letter, if you would be kind enough to get in touch with me, as I would like to know where my jar ended up.

“It all started when I lost my wife and daughter in October of last year, so you can guess I was devastated at my loss.

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“Then I started putting my jars into the river, not expecting anyone to contact me, but they did - all the lovely cards and letters I got. “I got to meet some lovely people who have since become great friends and with my messages in my jars, I would love to meet many more.”

The family immediately sent a letter to the man, and the children’s grandparents also sent a postcard.

The grandparents have received a response from the mystery letter writer and are now in communication with him.

Elsewhere in the letter the man had said: “I am so grateful and touched by all the letters and cards I got, which helped me through the dark days of my life.

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“I am still hurting but as they say, life goes on, once again thank you very much for reading my letter and I do hope I hear from you. “God bless and stay safe.”

Mrs Armstrong said: “I am really touched by the fact he was reaching out to people in this way, and it moved us that somebody who was feeling really lonely was now feeling so much better.

“The power of human kindness is an incredible thing.

“Once we had read and responded to the letter, we put it back in the coffee jar and sent it down the river again.

“Hopefully someone else will find it and write to him too.”

Have you ever found a message in a bottle? Let us now at news@nqo.com