An arrangement Rob and Dianne Parsons thought would last a few days ended up changing their lives.

Christmas is often regarded as a time for goodwill, but one young UK couple’s act of kindness 50 years ago changed their lives forever.

On 23 December 1975, Rob Parsons and his wife Dianne were preparing for Christmas at their Cardiff home when they heard a knock at the door.

On their doorstep stood a man with a bin bag containing his possessions in his right hand and a frozen chicken in his left.

Rob studied the man’s face and vaguely remembered him as Ronnie Lockwood, someone he would occasionally see at Sunday School as a boy and who he was told to be kind to as he was a “bit different”.

"I said ‘Ronnie, what’s with the chicken?’ He said ‘somebody gave it to me for Christmas’. And then I said two words that changed all of our lives.

“And I’m not exactly sure why I said them. I said come in.”