From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is My Unsung Hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

I don't know the name of my unsung hero.

And here she was trying to encourage me that it was going to be all right.

Thank you. You will forever be my unsung hero.

Today's story comes from Tom Sinclair.

When he was six, Tom wandered away from his family's campsite on Lake Superior and got lost along the rocky shoreline.

He walked for hours and eventually stopped to sleep using a piece of driftwood as a pillow.

At dawn, he started walking again.

That's when he heard a voice behind him.

I heard someone say, Tom, is that you?

And I turned around, and there was the man who became my unsung hero. I believe he was a

camper. He was standing on top of a rock and he came over to me and he said, Tom, how would you like to see

your mom? And I said, yes, I would really love to see her.

And he took me by the hand and he said, well, let's go back this other way.

And by then, I was exhausted.

I'd been going all night.

And he estimated that I'd walked at least three miles.

And so he picked me up on his shoulders, and he carried me back, and he just talked to me

as we walked back to the campsite.

And, you know, I didn't know how terrified and exhausted I was until I was on his shoulders and realized I was safe.

We got back to the campsite, and he put me in my mom's arms,

...