B.C. man steps in to help reunite American family

A woman from Georgia says her family's reunion was saved by a man from British Columbia who drove her family to the Alaskan border after they got stranded and appealed for help.

Lynn Marchessault began her trip with her two children, two dogs and a cat on Nov. 10 from Georgia to the Alaska border to join her husband, who serves in the U.S. military.

She says all was going well until they hit B.C. and got caught in a snowstorm.

The family's pickup truck was pulling a U-Haul and did not have the appropriate winter tires to get through the winding, mountainous roads when they stopped at a highway lodge for temporary workers in Pink Mountain, B.C.

Marchessault says she began looking for someone passing through the area who could drive them when Gary Bath of Fort St. John stepped up to offer his help.

Bath, who is a military veteran, drove the family to the Alaska border near Beaver Creek, Yukon, because he says he wanted to help the family be together for Christmas.

He described the 1,700-kilometre drive as "quite windy and really bumpy in some areas" but nothing he couldn't handle.