Don't accept lifts from strange men.

Despite the fact that I hitched up and down the country in strangers' cars, vans and lorries, I always asked them where they were going. If they were not going my way I didn't get in. If they asked where I was going I never said. It would have been awkward if they said 'Jump in, I'll take you there anyway'. So that was a kind of safety thing because I knew we were heading to the same place.

As a teenager I was waiting for a bus one night on a leafy, fairly remote road. A man pulled up in a car and offered me a lift. Obviously I didn't get in! I'm not daft despite having hitched many hundreds of miles. Maybe he thought I was stupid.

I think he was just trying to help an elderly woman in the rain, but I still would never accept a ride from a stranger.

I probably wouldn't accept a lift now but back in the 70's I regularly picked up hitchhikers as I didn't like driving long distances alone. I also hitchhiked with friends but once hitchhiked alone and the two men who picked me up gave me a real telling off for hitchhiking alone. They said "We are OK but not everyone is!" They made me promise never to do it again and I didn't!

I would refuse but thank them, if I didn't know the person. How would I explain taking a lift with someone I didn't know, when we are trying to teach our children not to accept a ride and to be wary of strangers. You can't tell just by looking at a person if you would be safe or not. I think it's better just to have a blanket rule for the whole family.

I don't think the risk has changed just that with social media and news being readily available at the click of a button, it's far easier for some people to show who they really are AND for it to be advertised quickly and all over the national & worldwide press. I also don't think the risk is any less just again, news travels way faster now which I believe fuels people's fear and paranoia. Whilst I'd be reluctant to accept to lifts from strangers, I am still someone who will stop to ask people walking in the pouring rain if they'd like a lift or if they need any help. I'd rather be the person who asked than didn't. I've picked up stray kids in the middle of the night who've missed the last bus home, a woman who was soaked through in the rain who had been thrown out of court that morning & had already walked miles in the rain and was sobbing at the side of the road. Maybe I'm naive and maybe I'm too soft. And maybe I've just always been lucky. But I'll keep being me.