As motorists sped past an 82-year-old grandfather struggling to push his broken down car to the side of the road, one man decided to stop and help.

Alfred Essling, who is deaf and has suffered five heart attacks, was driving along the A249 at Queenborough near Morrisons when his Peugeot 107 ground to a halt.

With no hard shoulder and no mobile phone, the octogenarian, of Queenborough Road, Halfway, was forced to get out and try to push the car off the road.

Granddaughter Sarah Currell, of Goodnestone Road, Sittingbourne, said: “About 20 or 30 cars drove past him – an old man struggling to get to safety.

“He’s had five heart attacks – he shouldn’t be doing that.

“It makes me so sad; it breaks my heart that so many people don’t bother.

“Then this guy stops to help, there were massive lorries going past so, in my eyes, that guy saved my granddad’s life. He’s a hero.”

When they had pushed the car off the road, the man helped Mr Essling to call Mrs Currell to pick him up.

The mum-of-three added: “When I got there he said he had to dash off, but he said his name was Chris.

“I didn’t get a chance to properly thank him.”

Mrs Currell made it her mission to find and thank the man who stopped to help.

In a bid to track him down, she posted details of the incident online in the hopes he would see it and she and her grandfather could properly thank him.

In just a few hours, the post had garnered hundreds of likes and shares and Chris’s wife commented, saying the post was about her husband.

Mrs Currell, 28, said: “She said that just knowing my granddad is safe is thanks enough.”