Campaign to reunite 'real-life Woody' that fell onto motorway with owner 'Liam'

A Toy Story fan who rescued a Woody doll from the side of the motorway hopes to hand the drawstring cowboy doll to its owner, who is known only as 'Liam'.

Bev McNeill, 50, spotted the doll lying on the side of the M4 near Heathrow airport after it fell from a moving car, but she was travelling too fast to pull over.

Coincidentally, the sales executive found herself stuck in a traffic jam at the same stretch of road seven weeks later and was astonished to see the famous cowboy figure still lying sprawled in the dirt.

She jumped out and rescued Woody - and in a scenario resembling the plot of the hit animated movie, which sees Woody booted onto the road from the back of a removal truck by the other toys - the drawstring doll has 'Liam' rather than Andy penned on his right foot.

A Twitter appeal with the hashtag #getwoodyhome has been retweeted almost 5,000 times.

Ms McNeill said: "I think some little boy was playing with him near the window and he got dropped out.

"I'm a big fan of Toy Story and of Woody in particular and it was so sad to see him lying there on the side of the road - just like in the movie.

"But the cars were starting to move again and I didn't have time to get out, but I made a note of the lamppost number.

"Seven weeks later I was stuck in exactly the same spot and I thought of little Woody again.

"I hopped out of the car, jumped over the barrier and found him.

"The guy in the car behind me was giving me a very strange look, but when I held up Woody to show him he just said 'aww'."

Even Toy Story writer and Pixar director Andrew Stanton - also the voice behind Toy Story 2's Emperor Zurg - retweeted the #getwoodyhome message.