Actress Melanie Hill has praised a woman who paid for the Coronation Street star’s mum’s shopping.

Hill, who has played Cathy Matthews in the hit ITV soap since 2015, put a tweet out asking for the woman to come forward after she came to the rescue of her mum, who had forgotten her purse while shopping during the Coronavirus lockdown.

She added that the good deed had brought her to tears by the woman’s kind gesture at an Aldi store in Sunderland, particularly after the woman would not let Hill’s mum pay her back.

The woman in question, 37-year-old Gemma Chisholm, an IT change manager for TSB Bank, came forward on Twitter to identify herself and explain how the situation came about.

She said: “I was in Aldi paying for my shopping and as I was talking to the cashier, the lady behind me said to the cashier she had forgotten her purse and could she leave her shopping at the till.

Credit- Gemma Chisholm

“I turned round and said ‘I will pay for her shopping but ring it through separately’ as we had some of the same items I didn’t want the casher to get in to trouble for putting more than the restrictions through.

“I just didn’t want the lady to go home and have to come out again and if it had been a family member of mine I would have wanted someone to help them.”

On finding out that the lady in question was the mum of Melanie Hill, Chisholm commented “She offered to pay me back, which I declined. I was in the position I could do it and I did.

“I am surprised by how much interest there has been, I just did what I thought was the right thing and happy to have made a difference.”

Melanie Hill, who is also known for starring in popular TV programmes Waterloo Road and Bread, said she had been in tears after being emotional lately due to not being able to spend time with her family.

She commented that it meant a lot to her that someone helped her mum.

On how her Corrie alter-ego would cope with this current crisis, she added: “I think Cathy and Brian would probably bicker a lot and get on each other’s nerves (Well Brian would get on Cathy’s nerves).

“He would make copious amounts of lists and things to do and Cathy would probably enjoy wading through the 27 books of puzzled/crosswords she’s hoarded under her bed!”

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