A WEEK on Sunday we had 10 balloons left over from my partner’s 30th birthday.

We tied them together and attached a note asking for whoever found them to get in touch with us.

We said they were baby Sam’s balloons, who is my five-month-old son.

His mum had given them to him.

We sat in the garden and put them in my son’s hands and eventually he let them go.

The balloons struggled to gain any height but eventually got up in the air.

We filmed Sam letting them go.

Two days later I was in work when I had a missed call from an 028 number I didn’t recognise.

I rang the number back and a man answered. He said his name was Colin and that he was from Ballycastle in Northern Ireland, which is at the very top of Ireland.

He explained that the balloons had landed in his garden.

Somehow they had managed to fly across the Irish Sea. Overall it is nearly 200 miles.

He has taken pictures of the balloons and sent them to me as proof they landed there.

Chris Rivers

Gleadmere

Widnes