A staff member from Asda in Penryn has been named Service Colleague of the Year 2018 after going out of his way to help a customer running in a charity race.

Aston Olver, who’s worked at the store for nine years, received a call from a charity runner, Rachael Bennett, minutes before the store closed late one summer night.

Rachael was taking part in Falmouth’s Race for Life and was in desperate need of safety pins to attach her race number to her top the following day however wasn’t able to get to the store in time before it closed.

It was then that Aston, who works as a night section leader, took down her details and after finishing his night shift, posted the much-needed pins through her letterbox alongside a note wishing her luck.

The commendable gesture went even further as Aston had enclosed a £5 note to go towards Rachael's sponsorship for the race the following day.

On hearing of his award, Aston said: “It's so awesome to be Service Colleague of the Year – I'm shocked."

He said of his altruistic gesture: "It was maybe four miles out of my way driving home, but I didn't think twice about it. I bought the pins, wrote a note wishing her the best of luck with the race, put a fiver in and posted it all through her door.

"I didn't think anything more of it until she mentioned it on Facebook and then it appeared in our local paper."

Alex Allan, store manager at Penryn, said: “When I got the phone call telling me that Aston had been named Service Colleague of the Year it filled me with pride, and when I told the colleagues they were just bursting with pride as well.

"What Aston did is 'Being Asda' all over. It's a great example of a colleague really going above and beyond for a customer – it's just absolutely fantastic. It's also great to see one of the night colleagues recognised for the great job they do day to day."

Aston attended the awards ceremony at Asda’s annual year beginning meeting where he received a trophy for his efforts in customer service.