An anonymous heroine is winning widespread praise and social media acclaim for leaving out a box of pricey tampons at the Calgary Airport women’s washroom, in a gesture that led to a dramatic price cut on the cost of the feminine hygiene products.

The woman said in a note that she bought a box of 18 tampons from an airport vendor for $15, after discovering that the 50-cent tampon vending machines in the area were all empty. But, rather than taking the pricey box with her, the woman left it behind and scribbled a note for other tampon users.

“I was forced to buy this $15 box from Relay,” she wrote in the note. “Not acceptable! Please take one if you need one.”

The box of tampons shown in the photo are sold at Walmart for $3.97.

Traveller Carlee Field snapped a photo of the kind gesture and posted it to Reddit, where it soon rocketed up to the site’s front page as one of the most-liked images of the day.

“Lady bro in the bathroom of the Calgary Airport! I appreciate you!” Field wrote in her original Reddit post, which received a net total of more than 11,000 positive reactions.

“It’s so nice to bring attention toward kind things that people do,” Field told CTV Calgary on Sunday, from her home in B.C. Field says she didn’t need any of the tampons herself, but she was still impressed by the generosity of the anonymous Good Samaritan. “Fifty per cent of the population needs these things and she helped make a difference that day,” Field said.

Field’s Reddit post caught the eye of the Calgary Airport’s social media staff, who declared that tampon prices were being lowered in response to the issue.

“Our maintenance team has checked and filled all vending machines in the washrooms, and our retailer Relay has adjusted the price of tampons to $6.25, effective immediately,” verified Reddit user FlyYYC wrote.

An airport spokesperson said the change was made in response to the Reddit post.

“We shared it with our partners and we were pleased to see our airport community come up with a solution,” Dean Paddock, the airport’s director of corporate communications, said in a statement.

“When we hear of ways we can collectively do better, we do.”

Field says she has just one message for the anonymous tampon provider: “Thank you. From woman to woman, you’re fantastic.”

With files from CTV Calgary